


Summonings

by kupopopoyo



Series: Young Justice: Summonings [1]
Category: Justice League, Static Shock, Teen Titans (Animated Series), Young Justice
Genre: Action, Disability, Ensemble Cast, F/F, F/M, Family, Fantasy, Friendship, M/M, Multi, Racebending, Romance, Trans Character, cast of thousands
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-05-30
Packaged: 2018-03-13 18:54:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 45,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3392504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kupopopoyo/pseuds/kupopopoyo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Reach Invasion, Klarion's plotting can finally reach fruition.  The League is now embroiled in international politics, interstellar threats, and inner pressures.  Zatanna must come to her own as Klarion tries to pull back the curtain on the world of magic and fantasy she has devoted her life to - and the Team never lets one of their own stand alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This began as a Birdflash fic, but after rewatching YJ and Teen Titans I saw more potential in the foundation the show and its creators left for us. So, here we go! Please enjoy!
> 
> Young Justice, Teen Titans, Static Shock, and others works whose characters and stories are used and referenced in this fic are not my property. The convoluted plot is though. :3

****_Tower construction zone – Jump City -_ ** _July 5, 2016 14:12 PDT_ **

Zatanna threw open the doors to the Tower’s gym and seeing no one, growled in frustration.  She had already spent a half hour tearing apart the halfway constructed facility and still hadn’t found him.  At this point, she only had fifteen more minutes before she was scheduled for another mission with Dr. Fate to investigate Klarion’s role in the recent invasion.  The Light’s resident sorcerer had been far too quiet for the League’s comfort.  But then there had been the Chrysali.   _‘Wally….’_

Fresh out of ideas, Zatanna headed to the living quarters planning on leaving a note.  As she turned the corner though, the sound of something breaking and the crunch of denting metal gave her pause.  Tearing into a run, Zatanna made a beeline for the source of the racket, fearing more invaders, maybe a spy here to sabotage the already disturbed Team’s sense of stability.  As the door opened, she readied a disabling spell, but was unfortunately greeted by a reinforced suitcase to the face and ended up on the floor.  Her last moments of consciousness were spent making out a figure rapidly rushing towards her.  Before she could make out who this mysterious assailant was, her eyes slid shut and she blacked out completely.

~*~

“..ee? Zee?  Wake up Zee, please!  I didn’t…I shouldn’t have hit you like that.”

Dizzily, Zatanna forced her eyes open and as her vision swam, Nightwing’s concerned face gradually came into focus.  Groaning, Zatanna tried to sit up only to collapse back onto Nightwing’s lap as a sharp pain stabbed through her head.  

“Sorry Zee,” her friend said, busy hands placing a blessedly cool wet cloth on her forehead.  He then offered a glass of water she took and some pain relievers she waved off.   After a sip, she closed her eyes to tune out the bright ceiling lights.  “I didn’t realize anyone was here,” he continued, “I shouldn’t have…lost control like that…”

Finally catching the hoarse and husky timber of her friend’s voice, Zatanna squinted and gave him a closer look-over.  The ever-present domino mask covered Nightwing’s eyes, but looked hastily stuck on and his breathing was uneven.  Before he could stop her, Zatanna reached up and gently pried the mask off her longtime friend.

Dick’s eyes were puffy and red and the uneven hitch in his breath broke her heart.  She couldn’t remember the last time she saw the former Boy-Wonder crying.  No matter the bruises, the aches, or broken bones, Dick would always bounce back with a determined grin and a snappy comeback.  Not for this though.  Not for the death of a teammate.  She hadn’t been there when Tula died, but she did check up on Dick as soon as she could and with Jason and Artemis.  He had been shaken, but twice as determined then.  But not now - not over Wally.

If he was still this way nearly two weeks from the fact, how must he have been right after Wally disappeared?

Ignoring her own aches and the beginnings of headache, Zatanna forced herself up to wrap Dick in a tight embrace.  He didn’t fight her as she did so.  Bad sign.  It wasn’t that Dick wasn’t a touchy feely person - but nowadays he’d try to shrug it off and crack a joke to lighten the mood if it got to that point.  If anything, he leaned closer into his friend and confidant, breath shuddering again as she could feel him try to sort his feelings out and put himself back together.

“…I messed up with Kaldur too.  If it weren’t for Artemis, M’gann, and Jade we could have lost him for good.  And now Wally’s gone…I should’ve done something more…I failed us…I failed him…”

“Oh Nigh – Dick. It’s not your fault.  It never was,” Zatanna sighed.  What she wanted to say spun around in her head, too much at once that she was sure Dick would dismiss, already had dismissed himself so that the only one he could blame was him.   _‘Wally knew the risks…you can’t blame yourself for not predicting the 21st scheme of a mad alien race after you stopped the first 20…’_ So and so on the thoughts raced in her head though she had no idea which to say or if they’d only make things worse.  Looking around for a distraction from the silence, Zatanna glanced around at the half-unpacked room and her heart sank seeing the damage Dick had done to the walls and lockers.  Wally’s death was hitting him so hard and she knew why better than most.  There was a reason she and Dick had stayed such good friends after breaking up, a reason why no one knew as to why they could trust the other to help with no questions asked.  They were each others’ confidants, birds of a feather with more in common than they had originally thought.  They understood each other better this way than as casual boyfriend and girlfriend, instead realizing that maybe that both wanted it the other way around.  They came to realize that they could only be friends.

Dick had wanted Wally to be so much more.

Zatanna had been furious herself when she found out Dick had lied about Artemis, but recognized that it was because of the importance of the mission.  So, she had been able to maintain a professional mask – barely, but she had.  That decision had been between Artemis, Wally, Kaldur, and Dick after all.  It hadn’t been her call.  

But here was Mr. Professional, the former Boy-Wonder, being anything but.  When all was said and done though, Zatanna was a publicly recognized heo.  Not a leader.  She couldn’t bear the same mantle, the burden of the lives of so many so young, the way Dick did.  Wally knew the risks the same way Artemis did, but even Dick hadn’t been prepared for the supposedly retired speedster’s sacrifice.  There hadn’t been time to plan, weigh the risks, and brace himself the way he and Kaldur had engineered Artermis’s ‘death’ and the fallout of Kaldur’s betrayal.  Zatanna couldn’t fault him for trying to find a private moment to grieve since, for all his strategies, planning, and preparation, Dick hadn’t able to protect the most important person to him.

What she could do was indulge Dick a shoulder to cry on, a time to mourn, a moment of humanity.  The mask would have to come back on all too soon.  It was something she was learning the hard way over the years.  Worse, it was a lesson Dick had learned growing up by Batman’s side even before she even entered the hero business.

This silence helped her gather her thoughts, but it wasn’t helping Dick.  About to open her mouth to say something, she wasn’t sure what, her League communicator beeped.  Dick, no, _Nightwing_ shifted wearily.  He shouldered his way out of Zatanna’s arms and replaced the mask without meeting her eyes.  “You should answer that.  Could be someone else’s life is on the line...” he said flatly, seeing and taking another chance to blame himself and wallow in guilt.

She sighed and, for lack of a better option, tapped her communicator.  “Zatanna to Watchtower.”

“Zatanna,” J’onn’s rich voice began, “Dr. Fate is requesting you join him immediately.  He says you have been keeping him waiting overlong.  You are not normally late for missions, is something the matter?”

“No J’onn, I’m just…sorting things out.  Could you ask Fate to just send me the coordinates and I’ll meet him there?  I’m not quite ready yet.”

There was a deliberate pause on the other line.  “Would you like someone else to take your place Zatanna?  We will understand if you need time to yourself given the…circumstances.”

Zatanna turned to Dick.  What kind of friend would she be if she weren’t here for him now?  It wasn’t like Dr. Fate needed her help specifically, there were enough other Leaguers with minor magical abilities who could help him track down Klarion.  Her mind made up, she tapped the communicator and took a breath when a gloved hand clasped her on the shoulder.

“Don’t put things off on my account,” Dick rasped.  “You’ve got a job to do.”

Patience finally frayed, she snapped.  “Oh please Dick, as if making sure you’re ok is any less important.  You don’t take care of yourself - look what you did to this room! If I leave you alone here, you’ll only hurt yourself.  I should think that more than anything should tell you how off you are.  You’re never like this!”

“I’m not some immature brat who doesn’t know when to stop Zee, I –“

“No, you’re a grown brat who doesn’t know when to say enough is enough!  You’re at your limits Dick!  These last few months have been pushing you too much!  M’gann kept telling me about your all-nighters and the way you keep yourself busy.  You don’t exactly have the best record for self-preservation!”

“I’m used to it, Zatanna,” Dick hissed.  “Comes with the job, I knew that and I’ve got it under control.”

“Oh, please!  Not more male posturing Dick!  You’re human, you can act like it – “

“Zatanna,” cut in J’onn, polite, but focused as ever.  “What is going on?  Why are you shouting, are you in danger?”

She sagged, realizing this was going nowhere.  She came to talk to Dick, not start a yelling match.  “I’m – I’m fine J’onn.  I think I’ll take you up on that offer.”

“Good,” came the approving response.  Upon catching that, Nightwing, on the other hand, threw up his arms in disgust and dropped back to lie on the floor. “Understand the League’s resources are at your disposal if you need anything.”

“Thanks J’onn.  Zatanna out.”

As if changing his mind completely, Dick got to his feet and began putting the room back in order.  Zatanna watched him, noting the heaviness in his step when he normally was soundless.  She noticed the tension in his shoulders, making him hunch when in the worst situations he had perfect posture befitting an acrobat and one-time performer.

Zatanna went over and wrapped her hands around his waist.  “You realize he would’ve wanted you out there enjoying yourself and not getting hooked up on him, right?”

If anything, Dick tensed up more.  “Yeah,” he snorted.  “He was really supportive when Kaldur blew up the cave and said I was taking too many unnecessary risks with the team.”

“Dick…” she half pleaded, half warned that she wasn’t going to put up with this nonsense any longer.

He placed a hand on hers, starting to pull them away when his shoulders loosened and the tugging hand returned to dangle at his waist. “Don’t mind me I’m just not…..tressed.”

Zatanna raised an eyebrow.  “…so are you saying you’re distressed?  Really Dick?  You’re losing your touch with the word play,” she drawled, trying to talk to Dick and bring him back to the surface and keep Nightwing away for as long as she could.

Dick chuckled humorlessly.  “Yeah, I guess I’ve lost my touch.  Without…him…to give me ideas.”

“You can say his name you know.  It’s not it’s a curse.  My word as a magician,” she tried joking, but it fell flat as her voice wavered.

Dick sighed and changed topics.  “You heard I’m quitting the team…for now.  I need some time to myself and to sort things out.”

Zatanna nodded into his back.  “Dick, just don’t beat yourself over it ok?...”

“No…Jaime’s doing enough of that for us all already.”

This time it was Zatanna’s turn to sigh.  “I get that you need space, but don’t push us out ok?  We missed you yesterday…”  

“It was Independence Day Zee.”

“That’s why we missed you.  Kaldur…wasn’t himself,” she finished hesitantly.

Dick’s face was unreadable, but he did take another step before she caught him up in a hug.  He tensed up and Zatanna willed him to relax.  She could believe that it would happen, for a moment at least.  He carefully reached down and pried her arms from his side.  “I’m going to go meet one of the recruits Batman and Virgil told me about.  You should go with Fate.” The last few words were said with pointed intent and a matching look.  Without waiting for a response, he turned and headed for the door.

Zatanna caught up and grabbed his shoulder.  “We’re not through yet. Dick.  Sort yourself out before I’m back.”  Giving him one last squeeze, Zatanna slipped by him and walked out of the room.  “J’onn, where can I find Fate?”

As her voice faded away, Dick about-faced and opened a dented locker. His eyes fixed on the unassuming USB drive tucked away on the upper shelf.  Retrieving it, he sat at his bed to connect it to his wrist computer and began flicking through photos.  Birthdays of various members.  Pics of the old Team five years ago.  The selfie he snuck of him and Artemis at Gotham High… Finally he came across a whole set filled with blurs of motion and odd angles.  Wally had played keep away with the camera and managed to hold out for a good two or three minutes before Dick had tripped him flat on his face.  Nineteen-year-old Dick settled on the picture Roy had snuck of a red-faced Wally chasing his thirteen-year-old self who was grinning and laughing like an idiot right after that incident.

“Ya dumb goof”

Then his communicator beeped, a private channel.  “J’onn?”

“No,” Bruce replied frigidly.  “Coordinates 32, 46, 41 North.  108 , 16, 27 West.  It’s Aqualad.”

 

**_North Pole -_ ** _**July 6, 2016, 00:04 UTC** _

Zatanna appeared in a rush of smoke, still a bit disturbed that Dr. Fate had tracked Klarion here.  It was just too much of a coincidence that only two weeks ago Wally had disappeared here.  Too bad, time travel was so messy Zatana mused.  She was starting to think it was worth the risk after seeing how Dick was shaping up after only half a month with the speedster…gone.

A shape in gold and blue caught her attention and Zatanna stalked her way towards Dr. Fate through heavy snow and gale winds.   _“Mraw em pu dna peek em morf gnillaf ni siht dniw,”_ she snapped, thinking again that it was time she and girls got together and discussed alternative costumes that didn’t rely on tights, fishnet or otherwise. It was a pity they made their outfits so cute.

Now that she could move in a straight line again Zatanna hailed her magical senior/not-quite-father.  “Find anything?”

Nabu shook his head.  “There are hints that the Witch-Boy came and did something, but for once he covered his trail.  One can only imagine what he has in mind this time.”  His peculiar double voice lost its usual dramatic oomph in the howling arctic wind.

“Especially since the last time he bothered hiding his scheme, the Light ended up with Starro-tech…” she recalled.  Nabu had been called in after Klarion’s ice trick and hadn’t been able to confirm anything about what Klarion had done in that room.  Usually the Lord of Chaos didn’t bother hiding what his tricks were, his M.O. was to surprise his victim with whatever rotten trick he had come up with - not cover up the act.

It was especially unnerving how little Klarion had done during the Reach campaign, especially given his nature as a Lord of Chaos.  For once, Zatanna agreed with Nabu’s zealous search for his opposite number because Klarion was the least likely of the Light to be content twiddling his thumbs as their grand plan came to fruition over the course of several years.  It had taken months for her to learn Dr. Fate’s spell to free the beetles, she could only imagine what Klarion could do in the same amount of time with all the resources of the Light at his fingertips.  Something big was up, it was simply too convenient to believe otherwise.

“…can I do anything to help?” she offered Nabu as she watching him scan the area.

“No,” the Lord of Order shook his head.  “You are welcome to try taking a look yourself, but it is unlikely you will find anything _I_ have not.”

Annnd there was the sting of dismissal, the aloof attitude that to this day made Dr. Fate an unpopular teammate among the League’s rosters.  Lucky her that he was her teacher in the arcane arts.

“Yeah, well I’m going to check for something anyways, I’ll be back in a jiff,” she called over her shoulder, already on her way to the center of the field they were in.  If Nabu heard her, he didn’t respond.  “Yeah…didn’t think it would matter,” Zatanna muttered under her breath.

Reaching the center of the field, she relaxed.  She took a meditative pose mid-air and cast out her magical senses.  A sense of strong Chaos magic that hung in the air like the heat of a blazing fire.  It all shrieked of wrongness to her magical self.  As she expected, she didn’t have any luck divining the intent of that malignant magical energy, only that there it remained to show something _had_ happened.

Zatanna frowned to herself.  One thing that this much magical residue did mean even after Klarion went to the trouble of wiping it was that the magical working had been big, even on the scale of a Lord of Chaos.  But whatever he had done, he must have taken the results elsewhere.  All the magic was in the air was the background “radiation” left by the spell, there was no focus left with a greater concentration of residue, no trigger to unleash some massive trap, or traces that this had been a global spell.  She was careful to look for that, even if it was only for practice.  Better to back up Nabu’s claim personally, sometimes she picked up things that went by the Lord of Order.  But today she found nothing.  It was as if Klarion did his work and then just up and left.  If that was the case, exactly what did he do that needed a spell on this scale and why did it bring him here of all places?

Tucking that thought into the back of her mind to mull over another day, Zatanna instead brought to mind a dearly missed red-head to attune herself to Wally’s life force.  Even after the incident, if Wally had died there should’ve been some indication of such on some level.  Batman had gone over the area thoroughly and even with the latest-edge tech and League resources, couldn’t even find a meaningful trace of Wally.  Up until now she couldn’t entirely accept that claim.  She had meant to come up here to check personally after Wally was gone, but Nabu had come instead since she was tasked with other duties as a more...political magician than Fate.  Luthor had a lot of new demands of the League as Secretary of the U.N. and Fate had been less than tactful in his refusal to work with mastermind.  Still, if Wally had simply vanished off the face of the world and that was as a good argument that he wasn’t actually dead if they considered the history of the heros and their villains.  Her mind leaped to Artemis, the Reds, but then to Ra’s Al Ghul, which led to –

“Nope, nopenopeno.  You’re here to do work Zatanna.  Concentrate.”  Well. It was work she considered just as important as chasing Klarion.  Might as well try rather than waste even more time moping over Dick like he was moping over Wally.

Attuned to Wally as she was, she cast a spell to feel for speedsters themselves thinking his powers played a bigger part in his disappearance than Batman had given credit.  When she used this spell, devised at Dick’s behest for a prank of all things, it let a person feel the presence and movement of a meta speedster like the prickling of static.  Using it now, she suddenly choked and landed in an ungainly pile in the snow, dazed and blinded by stars.  Recovering, she tasted blood and realized the shock of the spell had made her bite her lip.  “Great, spilling blood in a place filled with Chaos magic.  Which demon do you feel like summoning tonight ‘oh Great Zatanna?’” she asked herself, chagrinned.  Her mind was still reeling from the effects of the spell.  That hadn’t been static, but fully-fledged, storm-wrought lightning.  Something akin to a city’s worth of Flash-level speedsters had left its mark on the North Pole.  What the hell could have done something like that?

The next thing she knew, Dr. Fate was carefully helping her back to her feet.  “Did you hurt yourself?” he asked brusquely.

“No, I’m fine, just fine.”  Straightening up, she tried to brush snow from her hair only to find her arm still caught in Fate’s iron grip.  “Uhm, hand?  Can I have it back or do you plan on using it as a prop for your next trick?”

Fate stared at her before seeming to notice he still held her arm and let go.  Moments like these drove her nuts trying to figure out how much of her father Fate kept in check.  They were also another reason to curse the League’s poor foresight in assigning her father’s possessor as both her teacher and partner in heroics.

“Whatever Klarion did, he did it.  Should we go?”  She turned away.

“What was that just now?  Zatanna?”

“That was my fault, nothing that Klarion did.”

“Oh, but I felt it.”

Both Leaguers whirled in time to eat Klarion’s fireball face-on and the Witch-boy cackled while the Leaguers were blown into a snow drift. From between his feet Teekl mewled impetuously.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the League’s local wizards.  Well wizard, you’re not even a proper witch yet are you newbie?” Klarion taunted at Zatanna.

 _“Dniw dna wons nrut tsniaga noiralk!”_  Zatanna cried.  Fate was already pulling her out of the snow bank as he swung his free arm.  A ring of golden ankhs flashed around Klarion and swarmed towards the Lord of Chaos.  In the miniature blizzard Zatanna cast at him,  his silhouette was the only thing visible.

Still, the Witchboy jumped into the air moving faster than Zatanna’s localized storm could follow.  All the while, he was twisting around the swarm of ankhs.  A handful of ankhs managed to continue chasing Klarion through the air.  Despite them, he still found time to mock Zatanna.  “Baby magic again? Come on girlie, grow up already!”  Dispatching the last few ankhs with a wall of fire, he pointed at Zatanna.  “Have a taste of the real thing!”

From his open palm spewed a red-edged beam of black energy that rebounded off the air itself, painting crazy angles in the air.  Unpredictable as it was, Zatanna jumped out of the way only for it to angle straight up and ricochet again to catch her midair.  With a cry she was buried again, but Fate dove in.  Clapping his hands before him, he swung them and the ankh that formed out of them at Klarion like an enormous axe blade.  His foe simply snapped his fingers, disappearing in a puff of smoke to the other side of the spell weapon, and then did it again on Fate’s back swing.

“Pu-lease Fate.  Some originality here?”  The Witchboy bent over, his arm raised behind his back like a baseball pitcher.  Instead of a ball though, Klarion’s throw invoked a smoking, whirling black cloud that spewed chunks of magma at the Lord of Order.  Again, Fate summoned a golden ankh – this time to block the magma from hurting him or the recovering Zatanna. Klarion was hardly finished though, and he spun like a top until he was a blur, firing off angry red fireballs like a machine gun.  The flurry of spells broke through the shining ankh and then drove Nabu to the ground.

“Nabu!” Zatanna yelled out in panic.  This was not going well.   _“Uban dna Noiralk hctiws secalp!”_  Unexpectedly, the spell worked and Klarion yelped as he took the last of his own fireballs to the chest.  That worked.  Sort of.  Now Zatanna had a different reason to panic as Fate, still dazed, was now dropping from the sky like a stone.

 _“Tel em ylf!”_  Zatanna was airborne, streaking through the snow and winds the fight and magic stirred up to catch the good doctor and bring him down to earth safely.  Unfortunately, by the time he recovered, so had Klarion.  Snarling now, he snapped his fingers again and Teekl grew.  Not only did the spell enlargen the beast, but as they advanced, Teekl went up in flames.  She was seemingly unaffected by the crackling fire herself.

“I will handle the Witchboy, you deal with his beast.”  Nabu commanded imperiously.

“Hey, just cause I like cats doesn’t mean you can peg me as a crazy cat-lady.” Teekl snarled.  “Heavy on the crazy!”  She was cut off as Teekl pounced.

Red and gold backlights illuminated the fight as Zatanna let her magic loose to churn the ground.  She made stone pillars rise and compelled boulders into the air towards Teekl who only just managed to keep ahead of her attacks.  Every time the beast tried to close in, Zatanna pulled a disappearing act to begin the barrage from afar once again.  When Zatanna heard Fate cry out, she looked for him.  Unfortunate, but Teekl changed tactics as she knocked aside Zatanna’s latest boulder. She opened her mouth wide to breathe flame that reduced the subsequent missiles to slag and then spit fireballs at Zatanna directly.  That wasn’t enough to stop Zatanna who was bolstered by a satisfying, unearthly screech that could only be Klarion in pain.  She called forth a thick, thick wall of snow to block the fireballs and then thrust out with her magic to drive the column into Teekl.  The column was too big for Teekl to dodge away from, and spread upwards like a giant hand to keep the flaming familiar from just jumping over.  With an enraged yowl, Teekl was buried under at least a ton of snow.  A job well done, Zatarra smirked.  It was that another, louder and more desperate, cry of pain from Nabu distracted her.

Casting her gaze about she stared at the magic surrounding Klarion and overpowering Nabu, but…was Klarion glowing blue?  The light was ethereal and the last thing she noticed before a clawed paw roughly smashed into her and drew her attention back to her own fight.

~*~

“Oh come on Nabu!” Klarion mocked.   He hurled a pair of fireballs, then puffed his cheeks, blowing flame that took on a life of its own.  It imitated a serpent with fangs bared as it chased down Nabu - a fiery counterpart to Kaldur’s favored showstopper finale.  The other wizard simply dove around the two fireballs.  For the flame serpent, he generated an ankh which he held upside down through the loop as the serpent streaked forth.  Holding it that way, the Lord of Order wielded it like a sword, but held it steady before him so the serpent was split in half.  Two arcs of fire that flowed around Nabu, but he stood untouched.

“A sword?  Seriously, give up on the ankh thing Grandpa, you’re taking it way too far.  Old-fashioned and overused.  At least the baby is creative!”  Two points of flame streaked around Nabu, etching a circle of flame on the ground.  He wisely dove out of the way as a miniature volcano exploded and jetted molten rock from the circle.  Taking the loop of the ankh with both hands, he fired off the long end like a laser which Klarion avoided easily.  “Been there, done that, seen that trick only a thousand times before gramps.  Now watch and learn.”  With a flick of his wrist, a hand of flaming card-like constructs flared out in his grasp.  Klarion grandiosely hurled them at his opposite number and the cards left a burning trail in the sky as they all wound back and forth and ricocheted wildly like the beam that struck Zatanna earlier.

Rather than conjure a shield, Fate created another ankh glyph he held like a sword and braced himself.  At the last second, the cards converged on him in a massive explosion - but behind Klarion, Nabu suddenly jumped out of an ankh and stabbed the demon.

Or rather, he tried.

The ankh sword sparked as Dr. Fate struggled against a pair of flames Klarion held like daggers in each hand.  “Saw that coming,” the Witchboy sang.  “Thought you’d try something like that.”  The daggers flared and Nabu was knocked off.  Left open, Klarion took the advantage and managed to score an X-like cross across Fate’s chest.  Fate yelled out as he fell in a heap on the ground, his wounds still glowing red-hot.

“Order’s old hat, old man,” Klarion smirked menacingly.  He took his sweet time as he descended towards Nabu like he was climbing down a set of invisible stairs – step by step.  “This world has seen too much order for too long.  It’s time for a little CHAOS.”  He paused above Nabu who shuddered as he hunched over in pain.  So, Klarion chose to savor the moment.  Chaos magic coalesced as a demonic red energy bolt that he held above Nabu’s back, ready to strike.  “Goodbye Nabu, I had other plans for you, but getting you out of the picture like this _and_ killing your host is _muuuch_ more fun,” the Witchboy purred.

Nabu suddenly turned around, another-sword sized ankh in hand; but this time with one hand holding a bar of the crosspiece.  Moving to block a lunge with the sword, Klarion was, for once, the one surprised as Nabu instead kneeled and, holding the ankh like an assault-rifle, fired magic at his foe like bullets.

Klarion screeched as the bullets cut through him, leaving holes in his body that smoked and ate at the Lord of Chaos like holy water.  He collapsed, the chaos energy of his spear dissipating into the arctic air.

“Hmph,” the Lord of Order seemed unimpressed by Klarion’s defeat.  “I daresay YOU are the one who lost today.”  He was simalarly unfazed by the demonic reversion of Klarion’s face as he hissed at Nabu, doing his best to remain intimidating despite his pocked body.

“Let this be a lesson to you, Witchboy.”  The Lord of Order ignored the stabbing pain and aching of his body to turn on Klarion help Zatanna.  Klarion’s ambitions went too far this time – let him endure the same fate he envisioned for Nabu.  He looked for Teekl, but Klarion suddenly leapt at his back, latching on with a vengeance.

~*~

A muddled blast later, Zatanna ditched Teekl for a while by sending her far into the snowy distance.  Her battle won, she raced towards Klarion and Nabu as fast as she could.  Whatever Klarion was doing was meddling with powers that were far beyond Zatanna, clearly beyond even her father or perhaps even Nabu given the way the Lord of Order was struggling in the air.  That eerie, ethereal blue light was giving her the chills - more disturbing than a brush with Klarion’s chaos magic.  Whatever it was seemed cold, but all-consuming.  Pure like order – but with the hidden depth of chaos.  Neither Lord noticed her approach.  Nabu was clearly in pain, but from Klarions mouth, eyes, nose, and even ears the blue light leaked like something possessed the Lord of Chaos.  Nabu also shone with the same light.  One oddity was that Klarion was holding aloft a –

“Is that an arm?” Zatanna hissed to herself.  It looked like it, but it could have been some sort of arcane talisman…conveniently shaped like an arm.  She tore her gaze from it and examined the spell.   At first glance, it appeared to be an oral incantation.  Ironic given the way Klarion mocked her earlier.  But the language itself was clearly of an otherworldly, mystical nature, and only half of it seemed to be the incantation.  Klarion was manipulating magic on a primal level simultaneous with the magic in such ebbs and flows that it was counterpoint to the hushed sibilance he was murmuring.  The magic was potent enough to feel like a physical force, pushing Zatanna away from the two Lords at the center of the spell.

Underneath them a magic circle of the same ethereal light was filling in with obscure runes and a stylized symbol. From one angle, it looked draconic, another perspective made it seem floral.  Zatanna judged it maybe had about a quarter of the spell left before completion.  Against her better judgment, but pressed for time, she gingerly poked a finger within the circumference of the spell circle.

She jerked, head flinging back to stare unseeingly at the sky as her sense of being Zatanna was torn away.  Instead she felt like she saw three intertwined worlds, visible in terms of order and chaos: one for each and then Earth as a muddled mix of the two fighting, separating, and forming on an individual, global, national, and personal level all at once.  Then her sense of awareness zoomed back towards her physical body as it spewed light as Nabu and Klarion did.  With her mind returned to her body, she fell back out of the circle’s influence.  She caught a sense of Klarion’s chaos and Nabu’s order and something else far more integral to the fabric of existence.

To her horror though, the spell finished completion and the circle thrummed with light and magic.  Klarion’s voice rose to a sibilant scream of triumph as he grabbed Nabu’s helmet.  Still too addled from the spell, Zatanna fought to get up and found she couldn’t feel her arms or legs.  Instead, her entire body ached, and her stomach felt like a numb, fizzing pit as if she were exhausted and famished from a week’s lack of food and rest.  All she could do was watch in distant horror as Klarion pulled Nabu’s helmet off, and the Lord of Order returned to being just Zatara - Justice Leaguer, magician, … and Zatanna’s father.  The magic circle and ethereal blue light seemed to be drained into the helmet and Zatanna heard a sound unpleasantly like a heavy metal gate shutting - not as a physical sound, but one that resonated in her mind.  It overwhelmed the young magician, the last straw for a mind of even a mystically talented homo magi pushed beyond its limits.  She was vaguely aware of the exhausted smirk Klarion shot her way as he kicked her father over.  The Lord of Chaos held Nabu’s helmet aloft like a prize and Teekl joined his side.  The two – three counting Nabu – vanished in a flash of red and Zatanna lost the fight for consciousness at last.  She saw the ground rushing up to meet her and fell into numbing.

Artemis’s smirking face filled her thoughts. _‘I didn’t even get a chance to tell her this time!’_ was Zatanna’s last panicked thought.

~*~

Klarion laughed with a rare sense of success.  He gleefully kicked the white-haired elder Zatara’s prone form aside.  The feeble man probably survived the spell.  Most hosts improperly attuned to Nabu or magic would’ve died from that ritual, like that brat Aqua-whatever-he-went-by-now.  But the backlash would’ve still been tremendous.  Let him die in the cold or suffer the shambles of a life he had left.  Flush with triumph, the high was enough to overcome the toll of the spell - high even for a Lord of Chaos.  Klarion smirked as he held up the Helmet of Fate with both hands to examine his spoils.

 _‘Who’s learned something now Nabudy-boo?’_ he mocked to Nabu’s trapped spirit.  He relished the silent cries of the Lord of Order, then spared Zatanna a grin of absolute triumph.  Te tucked the helmet in the crook of his arm and as he did so, he brushed away the dust of the medium he had used – the arm of someone who had donned the helmet.  Catching the host had been the tricky part, but well worth the effort of tracking down and luring the Aquabrat that caused the Light so many problems.  Klarion actually sort of admired the obnoxious punk for his audacity leading them on by the nose the entire two years he had joined them.  Still, there was a certain amount of pride a Chaos Lord had up to uphold somehow.  Torturing him with an illusion of his dead lover was a delightful bonus.  As it was, it was nothing but detritus now - consumed as a necessary component of the spell.  Deciding to beat a fast retreat before any of the League or others realized what was going on, Klarion whistled to Teekl.  She shrunk to normal size and leaped up to his shoulders, curling around the Witch Boy’s neck as he retreated to the Realm of Chaos.  There was no point in beating Nabu and the baby if he didn’t get a chance to play with his new toys - especially the one he got ahold of before they had arrived.  Klarion had a reprieve before the more taxing rituals, but he had had plenty of time to prepare for this.  And the League had been so generous to spare the necessary materials in such a convenient way for him.

Now for the _fun_ to begin.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I noticed a discrepancy in the timestamps that was bugging me, especially with the scenes added in this chapter. They have been updated. Also I have to apologize about the tags. I swear I input disability when I was posting this the first time, but this is my first time using Ao3 so I sincerely apologize that tidbit was left out. Accordingly, the tags have been updated. There will be more updates to the tags as my beta and I hash out the story line. If this is against Ao3 etiquette, please comment as such and I will try to work out an essential framework ASAP.
> 
> Now you have an idea of why I picked the T warning. Gory wound scene ahead. You have been warned.
> 
> Young Justice, Teen Titans, Static Shock, and others works whose characters and stories are used and referenced in this fic are not my property. The convoluted plot is though. :3

_**Over New Mexico - July 5, 2016 16:04 MST** _

Dick avoided meeting Artemis’s eyes as he went to the back of the bioship and she didn’t try to meet his.  Dick had been avoiding Artemis since the incident.  She hadn’t been very enthused about him still searching for Wally in between League missions, patrols, and his day job which had cooled their relationship a bit.  He didn’t know why she was so touchy about his search.

“You sure you’re ready for this?” Tim asked skeptically as he entered the bay area of the bio-ship.

“Eh, Nightwing’s not that rusty yet,” Barbara pointed out.

“What are we getting ready for again?” Jaime asked.  He already had his jetpack formed on his armor as he stood by.

“Batman didn’t tell us anything.” Babs said lightly as she pulled on and turned on her helmet.   Tim had barely gotten out of class before Bruce ordered Babs to meet up with him and get to the cave.  Behind its tinted visor, she freely eyed Dick with suspicion of her own as she mounted her motorcycle.  He was being unusually quiet (hardly a new thing since Wally...passed) but she knew him well enough to see that the tension in his jaw was a sign that something really serious was going on.

“Besides,” Bart popped up next to Jaime, “Stick with me, we’ll be ready for anything the old gal throws at us.”

Jaime couldn’t help asking, “Old gal?”

“What?  It’s something Nathaniel used to say - lingo of the past and all that crashing jazz.”

Jaime groaned and facepalmed.  “Maybe for a grandpa dude.  Nobody our age would say that.” Then a bizarre expression crossed Jaime’s armored face.  “No.  No that’s not what it means.  No! He does not need psychological assistance Khaji, shut it.”  Everyone was getting used to Jaime’s half-heard conversations to his beetle, but it didn’t mean they stared any less.  At least he came up with a name for it, but whether Khaji Da was his inspiration or something the scarab itself came up with was up for debate.  Even they didn’t seem to be sure, only that it was a fitting somehow.

“Uhm,” Barbara whispered to Tim.  “Weren’t you and Cassie going to stage an intervention on Bart and La’gaan?  For their slang?”

“Number one, it’s a work in progress,” he admitted. “Two, _you_ try holding a speedster long enough for a language lesson,” Tim nonchalantly pointed out.

“Drop in 30,” Artemis announced from the front.  The tension in her voice cut through the go-lucky humor in the back.

“Right,” Dick was geared up and mounted a motorcycle as did Barbara and Tim.  Folding his arms he fixed the Team with a severe look.  “Twenty minutes ago, Kaldur sent a distress signal out from near Silver City, New Mexico.  We’re nearly there, but the signal was cut off almost almost as soon as it began so they might have moved him.  Find him and prepare for immediate evac.”

Everyone sobered at that.  Nightwing had only just left the team and Kaldur had barely returned.  After all his effort during the Reach, no one wanted him hurt but after the inside job, Kaldur wasn’t short on enemies.  It wasn’t hard to imagine a team of villains luring him out to take him out.

“Why was he out alone?” Barbara asked incredulously.

Artemis cut Dick off before he could answer.  “At the drop off!”

Bart grabbed Jaime’s hands and the Bat Family braced themselves on their bikes.  The floor of the storage room/bay in the ship opened wide and everyone dropped out of the bio ship.  Jaime took off, swinging a whooping Bart towards a cliff.  He dropped the speedster off to immediately begin combing through the shrub of the local high plains.  The three Bats activated their bikes which smoothly morphed into hoverbikes (hovering was generous given they were pretty much flying).  They and Jaime each took off in a different compass point while Artemis maneuvered the cloaked bio ship in widening circles to scan for Kaldur.

“These new bikes are amazing Batgirl!” Tim laughed into his mic as he zipped in and out of a crevasse, looking for the distinctive red of Kaldur’s breastplate.

Babs chuckled wickedly over the comm, “the Light isn’t the only one playing with alien tech.”

“Aw...don’t you have anything for me to play with Batgirl?” Bart was a blur as he finished checking this steppe and zipped towards lower ground that Artemis couldn’t cover as well from above.

“I’ve got a few ideas,” Babs chuckled.

“Crash!” he cheered.  Then his voice became urgent “Oh, GUYS!  Here!  I see something!”

The shock in his voice brought everyone wheeling back towards him and down into a valley in the mountains.  Artemis dropped out of the bio-ship and was the first to join Bart, but everyone stopped to stare down into the valley as they regrouped.  “What are those?”  Artemis asked, her voice husky in shock as she stared through her Tigress mask.  No one answered, as they were as clueless as her.

The valley below was dotted, smouldering really, with several squads of flaming beings.  Their faces looked fairly avian with their beaks, but their main body looked like a broad-shouldered man with arms and everything else - hands and lower body - amputated.  hot magma dripped from the space where the missing parts should’ve been like false blood.

“I bet Red Volcano would’ve loved to mess with these guys.”  Babs muttered.  She and Dick were comparing notes to figure out how to tackle them.

“So who would’ve made them?” Nightwing muttered aloud, tapping his chin as he thought.  “They look demonic, so maybe Jack of Fire learned a new trick?”

“Hmm, I’m going with Effigy,” Babs countered.  “He’s the only one who could make something this complex using only fire.”

Bart shrugged.  “Does it matter?  Let’s get in and show ‘em what for!”  Jaime had predicted Bart might try to run off, so he had clamped a hand on Bart’s shoulder as the others hashed out a plan.  It kept the speedster from running off, but not Jaime from falling over as Bart’s sudden departure left him off balance. “Woah Blue, easy there.”  At least Bart noticed enough to zip back and help Jaime back onto his feet.  Jaime could only grunt and give the sheepish speedster a pointed look.

“Negatory KF,” Dick warned.  “We have no idea what they’re capable of.”

“Or what we could do to them,” Barbara snuck another peek at the mystery monsters of the day.  “Blue should be fine and KF should focus on finding Kaldur.  But, what about us?  I’m guessing freeze ‘rangs are the way to go.  But I’ve only got twenty on me.”

“Twenty here too,” Dick said patting his belt to confirm.

Tim sighed, “I only carry fifteen guys.”

“If we make sure we hit the mark and assuming it takes two each for each of ‘em,...Tigress.  Can you keep up?”

Her lips curved into an eager smirk.  “Try me Birdboy.”

As Artemis and the Bats cobbled a plan together, Jaime conferred with Khaji Da.  “Sonic cannon?”

_'Available information suggests that would be the most effective course of action.'_

“What, you’re not going to suggest ‘termination by plasma cannon’?”

 _'Their combustible forms indicate that would only be a waste of energy Jaime Reyes,'_ the scarab replied, a hint of derision in his mental voice.

“Yeesh...not a fan of critics, huh?...Wait.”  Jaime frantically looked around.  “Where’s Bart?”

Already tired of sitting around, Bart thought to scout out the terrain, looking for an avenue of attack and then report back in.  He even remembered to switch into stealth mode this time he thought as he smirked proudly.  Nightwing would never turn down more info.  Stopping in a copse of trees, he noticed a group of them converged on a small waterfall grotto in the distance.  Then there was a sudden geyser and the fire monsters’ number was reduced by three.  Was that Aqualad in the distance?  He leaned forward, straining to see.  Bart was so focused on trying to make out if Aqualad was there that we never noticed the booted heel that cracked into the back of his head and took him out.

~*~

Barbara chewed her lip frustratedly.  “You don’t think - FIREBALL ON YOUR SIX!” The Team scattered amid the bushes as, almost like one being, the monsters turned to face their position and began hurling fireballs and set their hiding place ablaze. Well, there was a time for planning and a time to kick butt.  Between them, Babs was ready and eager for option 2.

“Nightwing - orders!” Bab’s demanded through the comm and physically just behind and to his right.  Chain of command in the Team was decaying as Nightwing came and went and with Aqualad’s recent return.  Factoring in the seniority and the way Dick was training Tim to take the lead as field commander meant that Babs wanted to keep their unit focused - something KF was proving difficult to commit to.

“Blue - find KF and get him out of here if he’s in trouble. Robin - give Batgirl your ‘rangs and prep the ship for evac stat!  Tigress, follow our lead!”

After they acknowledged their orders, Dick shot out of the bush with Babs (literally) on his heels and Artemis only a beat behind.  As Artemis unsheathed her sword, Dick and Babs let fly with their batarangs.  Thankfully it took only one to freeze each of the flame monsters, but Dick could make out even more turning towards them in the distance.  Focusing on the ones at hand, Dick threw a batarang with each hand and then drew another in his left while pulling out an eskrima in his right.  Tearing down the slope, to the group below, he engaged the crowd of six plus forming up.  He flung the batarang at the monster directly in front of him he vaulted into the air over it, bringing the eskrima down on the iced fiend.  It exploded from the concussive force into flash-frozen igneous stone robbed of its vital heat.  As he landed, Dick coolly noted that Babs and Artemis were having similar success as they covered each other’s back.  Then the monsters closed ranks around him and he reached for more batarangs.

Barbara allowed herself to smirk as Artemis swung her sword with enough speed and strength to bisect a frozen monstrosity horizontally instead of shattering it.  The two pieces fell neatly to the ground and broke, but by then Tigress had moved on to another target.   _‘Let Dick posture,’_ Babs thought indulgently.  She backflipped away from one monster's sweeping arm and froze not only it but the two right behind it with her second batarang.  Lined up in a row as they were, Artemis had no problem wheeling from between sword arm and forceful kicks to smash through them in moments.  Dick occupied the bulk of the monsters’ attention with his one-man job of freezing and smashing - but Artemis’s and her kill count was racking up faster.  She sidestepped a slippery chunk of ice in the rapidly chilly clearing and flung another pair of batarangs with deadly precision.  As she kicked right through the midsection of a frozen foe, she cackled.  “I’m ice, ice baby!”

Behind her Artemis groaned.

~*~

Overhead Jaime cleared a swathe of his own through flaming, not-quite-living flesh with sonic cannons on both arms.  The flame beings tended to linger for a bit before the molecular vibrations forced their unstable body makeup into pieces.  That didn’t stop them from trying to bring him down even as they dissipated though.  A part of Jaime’s mind was fascinated to observe that as each fireball lobbed up and came down, if it landed on one another fire monster the thing grew a little bigger.  The rest of his thoughts were focused on Bart, but he still commented for Kahji’s sake, “Good thing we didn’t go plasma.”

 _‘Was my recommendation ever in doubt?’_ Khaji Da pestered.

“Just help me find Bart, Khaji,” Jaime said, ignoring the last comment as he wove between a pair of fireballs.

_‘Your interest in the speedster in light of his past support is noted.  But unhealthy.  Too much - ’_

Jaime upped the frequency on his cannons to take down up a cluster of four monsters at once.  “Just find him dude!”

 _‘There. That woman is carrying the one monikered Kid Flash away.’_  Jaime spotted the woman with long wavy hair who wasn’t carrying Bart as much as dragging him by the leg across the ground.  She did so while carrying herself elegantly, holding Bart with only one hand like the speedster was an afterthought.

“Hey lady!  Hands off!” Jaime yelled and redirected his sonic pulse towards her.  Left without much choice, she dropped Barts leg and easily jumped out of the way.  She was fast.  Jaime didn’t even see her unholster her gun (or a holster anywhere on her black skinsuit) but she fired at him and Jaime yelped in startled surprise.  He stared at his arm.  One bullet grazed his left bicep, but it shouldn’t have hurt.

 _‘Initializing repairs,’_ Khaji efficiently informed him.

The armor was knitting itself together, but Jaime was already darting around the woman’s shots to scoop up Bart and carry the comatose boy out of the way.  Who was this lady and how did she have weapons that could cut through advanced-by-millenia Reach tech?

Behind him, Talia al Ghul calmly lined up her sight and fired.  Catching Blue Beetle’s jetpack, she took a breather to watch him and Kid Flash fall out of the sky.  The she snapped her fingers.  Instantly, a shadow flashed out a nearby tree to alight before her kneeling.  Five more shadows flickered.  “The Shadows stand ready.”

“Finish them off,” Talia sighed in disappointment.  Over forty heroes among the League, climbing towards fifty, and Sensei sends her after _children_.  As much as she’d like to be upset, caution towards her father’s killers tempered her outrage.  With the Shadows setting off on their task, Talia walked up to her servant.  “Done yet?  We didn’t break you out so you could sit on your ass and watch the grunts do the work.”

“In a moment,” Clayface rumbled.  He turned his massive head on her, but his gaze quickly went back to the battle before them.  “He can’t hold out much longer.”

“Then stay here.  I’m finishing him off _personally_ once the freak is done with him.”  Talia palmed her gun for a knife.  She wanted Kaldur’s death to be...palpable.  “I want to feel his last breath as I reach into his chest and crush his heart with my bare hands.” Talia’s face was a mask of harsh judgement as she looked on over Kaldur’s fight.  Sensei’s demeaning errand sending her to help Klarion bore unexpected fruit once Klarion informer her he never wanted to capture Kaldur alive.  In pieces was entirely acceptable.

“Whatever you say princess…”  Clayface was just content to watch the crowd of fire monsters close in around the pool.  In it, Kaldur was running out of water and escape routes.  Klarion was the delighted executioner.  He laughed ecstatically with both hand loose and palms up.   Magma dripped from the sleeves of his coat only to rise again as another lava monster opposing Kaldur’s last stand.

~*~

Tim had spotted Jaime abandon his part of the fight and fly off towards - holy missing relatives, was that Talia al Ghul?  She had all but disappeared after the the incident where she sicced Clayface on them that fateful day they first encountered the Krolotaens.  “Nightwing, Blue’s found Bart and TaG.  What do?”

 _\- “T-a-g?..Talia’s here?” -_  Tim watched Nightwing as he threw what looked to be his last freeze batarang and pull out his other eskrima.

“Clayface too!  They’re headed towards Aqualad!  He’s in the back in a pool, and in really bad shape!”

Dick was about to pump Tim for more info, but then the newest bat piped up again.   _\- “Wait, Klarion is here!  Ah, Blue and KF are down.  Talia just shot them out of the sky!” -_

Making a split decision, Dick hurled one eskrima like a javelin and pulled a few explosive batarangs.  “Batgirl, Tigress, disengage and head north by north east. Break out the explosive batarangs, clear a way and _\- do - not -_ engage any more hostiles!  Kaldur is our priority with the Shadows after him!” He threw the batarang and it exploded mid flight - stunning two monsters and giving Dick an opening to rush by.  “Robin get Blue and KF out and move for immediate air-evac on Aqualad.”

“Got it,” Tim answered on the comm.  He noticed several Shadows making their way towards where Jaime and Bart had fallen and he charged the bio-ship’s weapons.

Dick cleared the main mass of fire beings and finally located Talia entering a distant pool of water.  Legs pumping, he quickly scanned the area for Clayface.  It didn’t look like he was there, but the edge of the water was innocently wet white and gray.  Predictable ambush was predictable.  But it wasn't like he had much choice.  Mentally reviewing the contents of his utility belt, he cursed.  “Batgirl, anymore freeze ‘rangs?”

_\- “Three more” -_

“Hold onto them, I’m planning an art project with Clayface.”

_\- “Ah.  Toss a girl a bone?  What’cha have in mind?” -_

“No idea, but I promise it’ll be a smashing hit.”  Dick smirked at Bab’s snort of laughter.

_\- “Tigress and I are on the way.” -_

Dick didn’t have a chance to respond as the ground quivered and he stopped short.  The earth shifted and Dick instinctively dove to his right.  As he hit the ground, a sharp gray spike sprouted from the ground and stabbed at where his head had been only a moments ago.  Dick found he was caught in a living minefield that shifted and quivered under his feet.  Only his quick reflexes saved him from a crippling blow aimed at his legs.  Trying to rely on quick leaps and handsprings worked until a tendril whipped around the broad part of his calf and threw him off.  He was going to be impaled by landing on the sudden bed of spikes that formed under him.  At the last moment, a body tackled into him and knocked them both clear.  Seconds later, Clayface wailed as a series of explosion tore the unsteady ground to pieces and scattered pieces of his body around the area.

“You owe me,” Artemis said matter of factly, wiping squirming bits of Clayface from her mask. Dick was too winded to answer, and still too winded to stop Artemis when she caught sight of the grotto ahead and ran off calling to Kaldur.  Babs was there then, with a smirk and offering the three now-completely-unnecessary freeze batarangs.  The smile slipped when Dick pointed and they both followed Artemis.  In reverse from earlier, Artemis led Babs and then a wheezing Dick as Klarion knocked Kaldur out with his third up-close burst of flames.  Hearing Artemis’s cries the Witch Boy turned and offered a lazy smirk.  With a wave of his hand he set his minions off towards the three incoming capes.  As they turned to meet Artemis’s charge, he lifted Kaldur by the other hand.

The others’ blood ran cold hearing Artemis’s scream of fury and seeing the way she pulled her sword and swung it into a monster’s chest without hesitation.  Artemis was going all out and didn’t seem to care what happened anymore - she saw only one thing anymore and that was one of her closest friends in the hands of one of the most unpredictably dangerous beings the world had ever seen.  Her sword had gone brilliant orange and was melting even as she tore through two of the monster with one swing.  As the sword sagged, she tossed the warped hunk of metal aside where is sizzled in the water.  She completely ignored the minor burns on her arms and the flames dancing on her costume as she forced her way into the pond.  Thankfully (for her friends) the calf-high water helped put out the fire, but even Babs’ Batman-approved efficiency was having a hard time keeping up with the enraged heroine.  Babs was unloading with everything she had in her belt on the way, clearing the monsters out for Dick as he did his best to keep up.

Artemis was so focused on getting to Klarion, she was blindsided as Talia stepped out behind a rock and raised her foot only high enough to trip Artemis.  “You’re the one whose boyfriend died right?”  Talia nodded to herself and her cruel smile widened.  “Good.  Now I’ll make your family suffer for making mine suffer.”  Artemis coughed up water and gasped as Talia’s reinforced shoes bashed her ribs with a resounding crack.  Babs was between them the next moment, impressively lashing out with both legs in the air.  The kick was almost her undoing as Kalia ducked around the blow to seize Babs by one leg rather than fight the water to dodge the kicks.  Without much effort on her own part, Talia turned the heroine’s momentum against her and swung her against the rock that had been her cover.  This gave Artemis just enough time to scizor her legs up and kick the assassin into the water.

“Kaldur,” Dick screamed as best he was able.  Everyone, even the recovering Talia turned to watch in horror or delight as Klarion gripped Kaldur by his left shoulder and pulled one the Atlantean’s right arm.  Bone snapped and Kaldur was rushed to horrified and bloody consciousness as Kaldur tore off his right arm.  The screaming began then.

“Oh you big baby.  It’s just an arm.  I could’ve taken more,” Klarion smirked.  He offhandedly eyed the arm like he was shopping for a choice cut of meat while Kaldur continued screaming and spasming in his grip.  Artemis came to her senses long enough to crawl towards the pair, but Talia brought her leg down on the former-archer’s stomach.

Artemis swore and remembering her crossbow, she grabbed it underwater and fired from the hip - almost literally.  Talia somehow ducked back but Nightwing slammed his eskrima into the back of the woman’s head and she fell over, eyes rolling up into her head.  “Get Kaldur,” Artemis gasped, pulling herself together to help Babs.

Dick scrambled towards the Atlantean and Lord of Chaos only for Klarion to scowl at something and look off into the distance.  Something had gotten the Witch Boy’s attention and he wasn’t happy.  Or was he?  The scowl was giving way to a very malicious grin.  Seeing Dick he shrugged and let go of Kaldur.  Kaldur gasped and crumbled like a doll as he hit the ground.  Thankfully, he seemed to fall unconscious with that.  Dick noted with immediately repressed horror that blood continued squirting from the Atlantean’s torn shoulder and that Kaldur’s dark brown skin was already draining pale with blood loss.  “So many guests, so little time.  See you on the fly bird brat.”  Kaldur vanished like a puff of smoke - from the bottom up and almost all at once.

Taken aback, by Klarion’s sudden disappearance, Dick put himself back together and knelt over Kaldur.  “Tim I need you here NOW.”  Switching frequencies, Dick brought up the League-wide emergency channel.  “This is Nightwing.  Emergency Code 3 - we have a member of the Team down with a dismemberment.  Aqualad B-02 is down, right arm torn off.”  Dick’s voice wavered, but he spoke as clearly and loudly as he was able.  He placed an arm on Kaldur’s ragged stump and applied pressure, trying to ignore the squeamish discomfort of Kaldur’s torn arteries pumping blood between his fingers.  “Requesting priority level S transport to a medical facility.   He is hemorrhaging blood.  Additional injuries include several burns ranging from first to fourth degree burns and superficial cuts.   I repeat...Emergency Code 3 - Aqualad is down with dismemberment…”

_**Central City - July 5, 2016 17:22 CDT** _

Today turned out to be dull and uneventful.  After the world-changing events that took Wally from him, it was just like how Barry Allen liked it.  He was between cases talking to his fellow forensic scientist Patty Spivot about the changes in management while she pored over notes at her desk.  She was entirely too busy for the end of the workday.

“Singh is driving me nuts!  He pushed another two cases on me this morning - he didn’t even have the decency to do it in person.  Just dumped them on my desk with a note saying he wanted to hear results tomorrow while I was checking tests in the lab,” Patty grumbled as Barry placed a mocha on her desk.  One of the case files was before her as she stabbed at the police report with a pen.

“I’ll stay and take one of ‘em for you.  Only fair since you’ve been covering for me lately.”  Barry leaned in and whistled before Patty could guilt trip him by bringing up  the fact that he was already running late to get home to Iris.  “Oh that’s ugly.  And there were no traces?”

 _“Nothing.”_  One of the things that Barry had loved Patty for was her cool-minded passion for forensic work and uncovering the truth.  It was also perfect for distracting her.  “Seems like a fire killed this “Sir Swami” creep.  But somehow this fire didn't touch anything in his apartment.  There weren’t even any prints - just a dead dude with some tricked out magic tricks.”

“Hang on, Sir Swami?”

“Yeah, that’s all the ID we found - Sir Swami Zard.  Guy didn’t look that impressive.”

“Can I see this?” Bart asked tapping at the preliminary scan results on the evidence the cops at the scene turned in.

She shoved the printouts towards him.  “Barry, I don’t like that look on your face.”

“This dude and three others just gave me and a few other Leaguers some trouble the other night.  It looked like they were trying to move in on Zoom’s turf…”

“Were they any good?”

“One of them managed to freeze me and the others gave a GL, Hawkgirl, and Martian Manhunter a run for their money.  John was not happy this guy ran off with the jewels.”

Patty’s eyebrows went up.  “This guy evaded a Green Lantern?  I can’t say I think much of the galaxy’s space police if this guy gave them trouble.”

“Stop poking fun at the GLs,” Barry absently chided as he reviewed over the lab reports.

“Fine.  I’m still holding Hal’s behavior against you though,” Patty surrendered gracelessly.

“Did you read this?”  Barry suddenly flipped the lab results so she could take a look.

“Hmmm,” she plucked them from his grasp and scanned the results.  “Nothing but flesh here.” She frowned.  “Barely any traces of the clothes or carpet.”

“What kind of fire leaves no marks and only burns flesh?” Barry wondered as he picked up a picture of the corpse.  As the results suggested, the suit and even the turban looked immaculate and pristine despite the withered corpse burned black as charcoal.

“You think this is something for the League?” Patty was always eager to get in on the going ons of the League.  Barry was all for suggesting Patty get her own office in the Watchtower, but she liked Central City and bagging the normal creeps on the streets.  She said it was her way of making sure Barry could focus on his work as the Flash and get home to Iris in one piece.  She never did let him forget that vow she made Barry take when he told her he wanted to marry Iris over rekindling their old flame. _‘Fast as you are, even you can’t be in two places to make two ladies happy,’_ she had laughed, not holding a thing against the big-hearted speedster.

“Maybe. I - “

Barry’s comm suddenly turned on.   _\- “This is Nightwing.  Emergency Code 3 - we have a member of the Team down with a dismemberment.  Aqualad B-02 is down, right arm torn off.  Requesting priority level S transport - ” -_

Patty took one look at the expression on Barry’s face and paled.  “Go, I’ll cover for you whatever it is.”  By the time she was shaping “you” with her mouth Barry had gone.  Patty hadn’t seen that expression on Barry in a long time.  She hoped she never would again as she had hoped before and picked up the case report with trembling hands.  “What is going on?...” she muttered staring unseeingly at the case files.  Even she wasn’t sure which problem she was addressing and decided it was for both.

_**Coast City - July 5, 2016 15:32 PST** _

“I’ve got to go beautiful - family emergency, cover for me?”

_\- “Hal this had better be DAMN GOOD the way I’ve been sticking my neck on the line for you this time you goddamn” -_

“Love you too Carol.  Bye.”  Hal made kissing noises and hung up.  He managed to make it out of the testing lab’s main building before Barry appeared out of nowhere in front of him.  “GUWAHAHAEKEK - BA - !” Hal caught himself, “Flash! What a surpri - ewupp.”  Hal had not been expecting Barry to show up and was not ready for the transition to faster than light at all.  Thankfully Barry only took him clear of Ferris Industries before stopping.

While he was dazed at the sudden transition, Barry fixed him with a grim look.  “Suit up.  I’ll get you to the kids and then you’re taking Kaldur to the Watchtower ASAP.”

Hal changed into his Green Lantern uniform in a flash of emerald.  “You're lucky I think of you as my best friend Barry.  What if I’d been in testing?”

Barry was not in the mood for chit-chat.  “Prepare yourself,” he warned.  The speedster waited only long enough for the skin of emerald energy to form before picking up Hal bridal style and ripping off towards New Mexico before his friend could protest.

Barry was very aware of how strange he was acting.  Frankly, he didn’t care.  He failed Wally two weeks ago.  One year ago he failed Roy by not helping him find the Roy Cadmus stole.  It had been eight years ago when he failed that Roy by not helping Green Arrow tear the country apart for the kidnapped sidekick.  He failed Arsenal again four years ago by giving up on him as dead.  One year ago, Barry had also given up on Kaldur, very sure that Kaldur was beyond redemption when he destroyed that Atlantean city.  During that time, he had made no progress in stopping the Light.  By his logic, this forced Kaldur, Wally, Dick, and Artemis in the unenviable position of double-crossing and inserting sleeper agents into the Light’s organization to stop the Reach.

Barry was tired of failing these sidekicks he helped raise to the confident adults and heros the world so desperately needed.  He couldn’t fail them anymore - the Flash might carry on, but it would break Barry Allen.  Determined to not allow it to come to that, Barry pushed himself to higher speeds to make it to New Mexico before they lost anymore time.

_**Outskirts of Silver City - July 5, 2016 16:34 MST** _

Dick was trying to bind the wound and he wasn’t sure how he felt about the bleeding slowing down.  At least he wasn't screaming to set Dick’s hair on end anymore.  Either it meant that Kaldur was somehow recovering, or Kaldur was already that far with blood loss, or his friend was going into shock.  It was hard to diagnose that last bit with Kaldur losing blood and his Atlantean skin already clammy and wet from the rapidly reddening pool of water they were sitting in. _‘Oh god, there’s so much blood.  Dont do this to me Kaldur, don’t leave me too!’_ Fate might have conspired to set him up in a situation so much like the one with Artemis, only suddenly and viciously real.  Fate could kindly screw itself over and fuck off because Dick refused to put up another memorial in the Watchtower.

Talia and her Shadows had regrouped, but so had the Team.  Tim was still in the bio-ship, supporting the others running interference from the air with Jaime, while Dick stabilized Kaldur.  Tuning out the sounds of fighting, Dick was able to bandage Kaldur’s wound to an extent, and wrapped another length of bandage around the ragged stump as the one he just applied started to bleed through.

Dick hadn’t studied much about Atlantean biology, but he did know that living deep underwater had allowed Atlanteans to adapt stronger circulatory systems than humans.  Atlantean blood pressure being naturally higher to survive the depths only made blood loss more of a concern than anything else at the moment.  These boons were putting Kaldur’s life on a timer now as Dick struggled to keep his friend from bleeding out.

Babs kneeled with a league issue hypospray she retrieved from the bio-ship.  The League member’s superpowered bodies tended to break needles so this was Batman’s alternative - cutting edge Waynetech with extremely limited distribution.  They were mostly among League resources because the sanitation requirements Batman set as the standard for these things were expensive.  They were pretty self-explanatory: apply the pressurizing tip to the area and press the button, though this one had an unusually small tip to administer the dosage.  “Dopamine - for shock.  Inject into a vein right?” Babs checked.

 _\- “NO!” -_ Artemis warned on the comm. _\- “Atlantean’s body water content is volatile to dopamine.” -_

“What do you mean??” Bab’s demanded. She looked up in time to see Artemis demonstrating surprising restraint in unloading three crossbow bolts in a Shadow’s leg and then forcefully twisting another’s arm until it snapped.

_\- “Wal...Kid Mouth learned in class that you shouldn’t give Atlanteans certain first aid.  Dopamine messes with the...thing that controls their body’s water or...something.” -_

“Ok…”

The next thing Dick knew there was a blur of motion and the Flash flipped Hal Jordan to stand on the ground.  “Flash!  GL!”

“Is he stable?” Flash gave Kaldur a lookover without preamble.  Static lightning played around his eyes as he ducked to examine the torn stump of the Atlantean's shoulder in a blur.

“Stable as I can get him.”

Barry glanced towards his friend.  The Green Lantern nodded and activated his ring.  It encapsulated Kaldur in a skintight, but gentle construct that would prevent him from jostling the Atlantean’s wounds as they moved.  “I’m going to need cover,” Hal noted.  Barry nodded and was off before Dick could do more than open his mouth.  Babs charged by and Dick took that as his cue to follow.

There wasn’t much to do.  By the time they cleared the water’s edge, Barry had taken out all of the Shadows in a blur.  Talia seemed to fare slightly better, but even as she tripped Barry up, the Flash rolled with the blow to get behind her in one smooth motion and heavily backhand the assassin’s head.  Dick couldn’t help wincing.  Talia was going to have one hell of a headache once the day was over.  As he surveyed the battlefield, he raised a brow;  Barry was going so fast, he was literally blazing his trail into the ground in streaks of dying embers.  Then there was a loud thunderclap from behind as Hal shot into the air with Kaldur and went from zero to breaking the sound barrier in his rush to the Watchtower.

That only left them with a small army of flame monsters and Clayface who finally reassembled himself with a gurgling roar.  Bart darted up then, offering Dick his other eskrima, singed but somehow still whole and usable.  The others formed up around him and even Barry nodded in deference to Dick.  Fleeing in the bio-ship was one option Dick considered, but then what would the good people of Silver City do against these flame things?  Besides, the Flash was here to back them up personally and Dick was in the mood for some good ol’ mindless payback.

The flame monsters charged - and that was really all they had time to do.  A streak of motion hurled itself into the midst of the fiends ruining the neat rows of living fire.  Whatever hit them cratered the earth, sending more than a few present to their knees.  A breath after, Superman rocketed in from above and dropped off Black Canary and Aquaman, each of whom he had been carrying under one arm.  Captain Marvel grimly rose out of the devastated demons and nodded to Superman.

“Aquaman?” Clark requested.  The King of Atlantis wore his rage like a mask on his face - his fury terrible to behold.  He stabbed into the grotto water with his trident which was a rarely seen artifact of Atlantis’s arsenal.  His Majesty’s trident manipulated the dregs of the pool over the hero’s heads and into the midst of the monsters.  Steam bloomed like a delicate flower and buffeted them with moist heat that Superman’s ice breath quickly dispelled.  One Canary Cry later and the fiends were little more than white dust - the ice finely powdered into a semblance of snow by Black Canary’s awe-inspiring talent and visceral outrage.  The cry also shredded the misty steam highlighting Clayface’s conspicuous absence, but it was unlikely the cowardly ex-assassin lingered once the League’s heavy hitters made an appearance.  Talia and the other assassins were also notably missing.

“To the Watchtower,” Orin said without delay as he strode purposefully to the bio-ship.  No one argued and in short order, the bio-ship took off from the battle-ravaged valley.

**_Watchtower - July 5, 2016 19:09 EST_ **

A grabbag of heroes greeted them in the foyer outside the Tower’s medical bay.  La’gann seemed to want a word with Orin, going so far as to intercept His Highness right by the doors.  Dick half-expected Orin to do something he might regret in his rush to Kaldur, but the scroll with a green ribbon wax seal seemed to peacefully convince him.  This of course left the way clear for Dick and Artemis to run in.  Artemis wasn’t familiar with this part of the Watchtower so she followed Dick as he went straight to the operating wing.  Hal was already there, mask off and rubbing his eyes worriedly.  Batman blocked the way to the operation room with an open palm, but the two felt insulted - surely it was apparent they knew better than to mindlessly dive in!

Knowing so didn't make the wait any easier.  Eventually, Batman escorted Hal out and cleared the rest of the Team to file in.  First was La’gann who was unusually silent as he took a position opposite Artemis’s leaning on the right side of the door.  He ended up mirroring how she crossed her arms and stared down at the ground on the left.  Babs and Tim went to sit by Dick and tried coaxing him away to clean up or at least distract him from thinking about Kaldur.  Their older “brother” heard none of it and instead stared at Kaldur’s blood on his hands. _‘Was this how the other’s felt when Artemis ‘died’?’_ he wondered.  He closed his eyes and balled his hands into fists which prompted Babs to lean in closer and bury her face in the crook of his neck.  Tim thankfully didn’t, but he also talked to Dick with Babs under their breath as the gloom in the room became a palpable thing.

Bart and Jaime filed in with Karen and Mal following.  Captain Marvel meekly joined them.  Then there was Cassie. Virgil.  Raquel came in sometime later.  The Team crowded close, taking comfort in each other’s company, their warmth, their silence.  It was a lot like the announcement of Artemis’s death, and yet it wasn’t.  Flash commented as such.

“We can’t let them keep doing this,” he decided.  He and the other founding Leaguers were gathered outside the waiting area as they looked in on the Team.

Clark gave Bruce a sideways glance the stoic crusader ignored.  “So what do you have in mind Barry?” the Man of Steel inquired.

“Shut down the Team and move them back with mentors until they’re ready.”

“You would spit on their work so far, their sacrifices, over the memory of Wally?” Diana demanded sharply.

Bruce pointed out a more practical failing in his friend’s proposal, trying to appeal to Barry’s frayed sense of logic.  “How would we decide they’re ready?  They just spent six years working life-threatening missions and pushing themselves to their limits of their own account.  How many more hoops do you want to put them through over the fact that _we_ are not accounting for the threat our enemies pose?  These are temporary setbacks.”

“ _Kaldur is missing an arm!_  Wally, Tula, and _Jason_ are dead!  What about them being dead is a temporary setback?”  Barry’s eyes were practically popping out of his head, but Bruce didn't rise to the baiting.

“Have you so little faith that they will recover?” J’onn quietly demanded. Unfortunately his calm demeanor only seemed to be aggravating Barry.

Orin had enough.  He placed a firm hand on Barry’s shoulder.  “ I feel for you Barry.  I do, even though I know my pain cannot compare to yours.  But the decision is, as it always should have been, in _their_ hands.  Not ours.  We lost our right to deny them that when we agreed to make them our charges.”

“We would provide what training we are able,” J’onn reminded him  “Their life choices are theirs.  Tula saved the world from a terrible threat with valor I dare to say many among the League would be hesitant to follow.  Does it make her death any less tragic?  No.  But that does not mean it was any less necessary at the time.”

“Besides Barry, there’s a difference here from the time Artemis ‘died.’” Diana pointed out.  “Can’t you see it?”  Barry shook his head lips tight.  Diana went to peer through the window slit in the door.  “There is grief, but also something more important.”

“And what would that be?” Barry snapped.

Diana turned, a faint twinkle in her eye.  “Hope.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Still, we cannot give up hope! For hope, [Begins to cry.] is all we have! And we must never relinquish it, even ... [Sniffs.] even to our dying breath!"  
> Brownies for anyone who gets the reference. You can just copy and pasta to get the answer.
> 
> Slow burning story is slow. I had an additional 4 chapters ready and was rounding out another when I first posted this. But the time gap between scenes was judged too long hence this and Chapter 3. I really am sad that I haven't gotten to the Titans yet, but I'd rather set the scene first before burying you guys in new characters. I feel like I'm doing enough of that as is. I"ll try to post weekly on Thursdays, but I'm holding back on what I have so me and my beta can flesh out the rest of the story. However, work is slow this coming month so maybe I'll sneak a couple extras here and there. ;) Hope this is as interesting for you all to read as it is to write. Researching the source material has been fascinating if frustrating.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This piece now has a companion piece full of rambling narrative and MORE CHARACTERS! Reading it is not necessary, but events occurring within it will be referenced in the main fic. I am dividing them so that those not interested in the immense cast of characters I am interested in writing about can enjoy the main story without the extra baggage. Check at the "Young Justice: Summonings" series. (I have no idea how to hyperlink into these notes yet)  
> Young Justice, Teen Titans, Static Shock, and others works whose characters and stories are used and referenced in this fic are not my property. The convoluted plot is though. :3

_**Watchtower - July 6, 2016 01:12 EST** _

Kaldur opened his eyes slowly.  He tried to shake his head to clear the fog and found himself too weak to.  What happened?  Kaldur closed his eyes and began deep breathing exercises from his Academy days to clear his mind.  At last, the events earlier came to mind and he realized he felt cold. Cold...where he shouldn’t.  His eyes crawled downwards and found the stump of chest where his shoulder used to be.  His breath caught.  He had seen war wounds and amputees before.  It took years for him to recognize the struggle of Atlanteans to navigate the waters of their home with fewer limbs, or unfamiliar ones of plastic or metal.  He learned to appreciate their fortitude - but he had never seen one with a whole part of their chest carved off like this.

Kaldur blinked in frustration.  It was all too easy to sink back to sleep and pretend this was a dream.  It was then that he noticed the others in the room.  Bart, La’gann, Barbara, Mal…  The entire Team was here and scattered sleeping around the room...except for Jaime, Raquel, Zatanna, Dick and Artemis.  Kaldur couldn’t quite ignore the pang of sadness and abandonment at that.  Connor and M’gann were still on the extended mission to Mars with Garfield.  Raquel likely had Amistad to attend to.  That didn’t explain Zatanna, Dick, or...Artemis.  He would’ve expected them of all people to be here for him.  Perhaps there was a mission of some sort.  Some of the Team had asked if Atlanteans cry.  With all their differences, it wasn’t surprising they forgot that Atlanteans were once human too.  Kaldur’s vision blurred with tears, but he was able to bury a sob to keep from waking the others.

He really needed the privacy now.

The minutes passed and he watched Karen lean closer into Mal.  He even managed to overlooked Bart’s atrocious snoring.   As he watched La’gann sprawl under the window, Kaldur wondered why they were here.  Since returning to the Team, a part of him still wondered how well receieved he was.  He had done unforgivable things, many to the people in this room.  But the Team found it in their heart to forgive him.  He wouldn’t have blamed them if they had abandoned him to his fate - for some things, certainly deserved to die out in the uncaring desert today.  But...if they had done that though, why was he here?  Why did they camp out in the room, ignoring school, ignoring their responsibilities to stay here and sleep on cold tiles and stiff plastic chairs.   _‘Because they wanted to be here for you’_ a treacherous and naive part of his heart whispered.

Kaldur was desperate enough to believe it.   Despite his tears, he found himself smiling and something warm bloomed in his chest..

The door opened and Kaldur tried to wipe his tears with an arm that was no longer there.  He quickly dashed them with his left hand as a gorgeous black woman with short cropped hair and expressive eyes peered in.  He was startled to see that the eyes were milky white though.  She opened the door only a crack to keep the light from disturbing the slumbering occupants of the room.  “Do you need anything Kaldur?” she whispered.  If she noticed his eyes were red, she kept it to herself.

He shook his head.  His voice, when he found it, was raspy.  “I am quite fine.”

She slipped into the room and quietly shut the door.  No automatic doors here or glass walls to look in through.  Kaldur would admit there was something comforting about the room.  It held a quiet promise of privacy and peace in the, admittedly eerie,  white-washed walls and classic hinged door.  Very much unlike Atlantis, but it was a nice experience.  The view of space didn't hurt either.  

The woman wore a white doctor’s gown over a striking black jumpsuit with yellow highlights.   In her hands she held a clipboard and looked without seeing at the medical equipment next to the bed as she spoke.  She took notes on it without bothering to look down at her writing which, Kaldur noticed, was steady and perfectly legible.

“I am Doctor Mid-Nite,” she carefully enunciated the code name.  “I will be your acting doctor and I oversaw your operation.”  Reminded of his missing limb, he looked down and her mouth quirked into a grimace.  “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to do more for you.”

“I am told it is the worst part of being a doctor,” Kaldur softly commented.

Doctor Mid-Nite nodded.  “It is….You should just rest and recover for now.  If you need anything, press the button on your bedside table.” She gently rested her hand on said button for a moment.  “Any questions?”

“No. Thank you...for saving my life Doctor.”

A genuine smile lit up Doctor Mid-Nite’s face.  “Please, call me Betty.  If you’ll excuse me I’ll check in on the others and tell Nightwing and Tigress you’re awake.”

“Others?” Kaldur stayed quiet but sat up straighter.

“Ah, yes.  I’m very sorry to tell you…” she faltered under Kaldur’s intense stare.

_**Watchtower - July 5, 2016 20:31 EST** _

Betty Chapel opened the door to the emergency room and everyone’s eyes went to her.  Shortly after the Reach’s plotting had been revealed, the League retained the services of superpowered doctors from around the world including Doctors Light and Mid-Nite and the former Dr. Mid-Nite, Charles McNider, to take shifts on the Watchtower for medical emergencies.  That foresight was now proving itself useful as Betty composed herself.  Her smile was sideways.  “He’s stable now.”  Once the breaths of relief finished, she continued.  “He’s just resting and should be out for a couple hours.  I had to...remove...a bit more so that his body could heal somewhat naturally.  Once this is over, he’ll need a prosthetic of some sort, but I don’t recommend him getting back into the hero business.”

“We’ll let Kaldur be the judge of that,” Dick firmly commented.  Before anyone could ask anything else, Betty’s hand flew to her ear.

“Come again?” A League message.  “ _Another one?_ More than one?”

“Wait, what’s going on?” Artemis demanded.  Betty had the impression of being an unflappabe hero so far and the horrified surprise on her face was ominous.

Betty shook her head as if she was having trouble coming to terms with things herself.  “Captain Atom has informed me that Zatanna and _Zatara Zatanna_ are coming in from the North Pole.  They will need immediate extreme cold treatment.  Excuse me, I really have to go get ready.”

She left the Team shocked in the wake of the news.  Even Dick was stunned as he stood with his mouth ajar.  Raquel was a bit more vocal.  “ _Zatara?_ What happened to Fate?”  Unfortunately nobody seemed to know anymore than her.  That was not going to cut it.  Raquel lived up to her namesake and shot out of medical bay towards the main foyer.  At the very least she wanted to check on Zatanna - best friend’s prerogative.

She could claim best friend’s prerogative, but that didn’t stop League members already jumpy from the day’s events from trying to get a look as well.  At least they had the sense to not stand between the hanger bay and the medical wing.  Rocket was able to catch a rapid blur that she suspected was Superman before the air he displaced in his passing spun her upside down.  She turned to follow when she heard Hawkwoman call to her.

For Hawkwoman, she was only slightly grudging as she went over.  “Yeah, what is it Shayera?  I really need to see Zee.”

“That,” Shayera pointed in the way Superman had gone, “was Zatara.  Superman took off as soon as Captain Atom said there was a problem with Zatanna and Fate.  Augustus went down to pick up Zatanna separately.”

“Wait what?”

The Thanagarian heroine raised her hands and her wings splayed, mirroring the motion.  “I don’t have any idea what is going on, I just knew that and thought that would interest you.”

Raquel allowed herself a sigh.  “It’s ok, thanks for the heads up.”

“Anytime for my favorite partner,” Shayera winked.  Raquel and Shayera hit it off after a mission together.  The heroine had been impressed by Raquel’s adaptations to her belt that let her channel her kinetic manipulator to more offensive applications.  Shayera insisted on having a duel one of these days testing her mace against Raquel’s force bubbles.  “Besides you of course,” Shayera gently took her husband’s chin in hand and kissed his cheek tenderly.  Both Hawkman and Raquel blushed.  Was she like that with Victor?  Raquel grinned to herself - if not she would make a priority to be.  

Then she saw Icon in the distance and remembered.  “Oh there they are!”  He was much gentler with his burden than Superman who was opting for speed.  He also appeared to be talking to Zatanna worriedly.  “Augustin, Zee!” Raquel called as her mentor landed in the bay  Augustin turned and hitched his arm carefully so Zee could get a proper look at Raquel.  “Oh my god!  Zee, are you ok?”

Zatanna’s coat was singed and ragged at the edges and she was a cut on her head was bleeding sluggishly.  She tried to nod, but she was too tired to even shake her bangs out of her face.  Augustin had to remove the space mask for surviving the short flight into space for the battered magician.  “I just need some…”  Zatanna trailed off and her eyes slid shut.

“She’s exhausted,” Augustin explained.  “I think she’s dehydrated too.  She doesn’t appear to have suffered the weather as badly as Zatara.”

“Her biorhythms are...off,” Red Tornado volunteered from nearby.  With the cave gone, he had taken to dwelling on the Watchtower, usually in the ops room.  Now he was more than welecome for his insight on Zatanna’s current condition.  “However, she appears physically healthy.  I suspect a magical fault for her state.”

“Well if Zatara’s not well and he isn’t Fate, who can help us with that?” Hawkman rightly asked.

At that moment, the Zeta tubes activated.   _“06AA - Authorized Guest, 06AB - Authorized Guest.”_  Everyone looked towards the tubes, bodies tensing as they expected more bad news.  Instead, two men, dressed in armor of Atlantean style stepped out.  A moment later the Zeta tube announcer piped up again.   _“06A01 - Queen Mera”_ The light faded to indeed reveal the Queen of Atlantis onboard with another two guards following shortly after to complete her small squad of protectors

Seeing the crowd gathered around Icon, Mera stepped towards them, her guard only a step behind.  “May I trouble one of you to guide me to the infirmary?”

Augustin was as composed as ever.  “If you would follow me your highness.  I was going there now,” he managed a slight bow despite holding Zatanna.

“Is she alright?” Queen Mera asked looking alarmed as Augustin mentioned that and she recognized the Team’s former resident magician.

“Actually,” an idea crystallized in Raquel’s mind, “something went down with Zatanna and Fate in the North Pole.  We think something magical is affecting Zatanna.  Would you help us make sure? Uh...your majesty?” she awkwardly appended.  Mera had far too open a face and seemed too kindly to Raquel from their one encounter developing cure-tech.

“I would be happy to be of assistance,” Mera agreed she raised a hand that glowed faintly blue and held her palm over Zee’s face.  “Did she say anything on the matter?”

“Only that she and Fate were ambushed,” Augustin said.  Nobody seemed to feel the need to tell her about Zatara, though Raquel expected she would hear of that from Aquaman eventually anyways.

Mera withdrew her hand.  “I can tell you that she is not suffering from any hexes or curses.  She bears signs of magical battle and something….strange,”  Mera’s eyes narrowed as she pondered that.  “I believe she may have overcommitted to a spell.  It happens all the time at the Academy.  She will need food, rest...and water...but that should be all.”

“Thank you Queen Mera!” Raquel absolutely beamed with relief.  If she hadn’t been concerned Mera’s guards would shoot her for trying, she would’ve swept Mera up in a hug.  “We’ll show you to the infirmary now.”

~*~

Dick was waiting right outside the medical bay with Artemis.  “Dr. Mid-Nite just went into the emergency room with Zatara.  How is - ZEE!”  He was shocked by Zatanna’s state, but it was Artemis who Icon had to stop short with a raised hand to allow their party to explain what they knew.  A troubled Artemis went in to tell the others the news and Dick heard out Mera’s request.  Afterwards he escorted Augustin and Raquel to a room where they set up Zatanna up with an IV to recover.

“What’s the verdict on Zatara?” Raquel asked as Dick dimmed the lights and shut the door on Zatanna’s room.

“Bad.  Superman mentioned extreme frostburn, breathing complications, and a weak heart.  Whatever happened put him in rough shape and the cold nearly finished the job.” His mouth was a grim line.

Raquel scowled, “Nothing but bad news today…”

“Careful you don’t jinx us,” Augustin said dryly.  He squeezed Raquel’s shoulder reassuringly before leaving them.

Once he left, Raquel couldn’t help asking, “What did Mera want?”

“She wants a word with Kaldur as soon as he’s up.  I convinced her to come back tomorrow since the anesthetic Dr. Mid-nite gave him should keep even an Atlantean under for hours.”

“ _Mera_ wants a word with Kaldur? Not Aquaman?”

Dick resisted the urge to take his mask off to rub his weary eyes and settle for pinching at the the bridge of his nose.  “It’s not like she can’t.  She technically has access here and Kaldur is still an Atlantean.”  Part of the changes to the League included granting access to certain civilians too.  After Kaldur bombed Mount Justice, the contingency plans Atom set up established the Watchtower as an emergency safe house for politicians and civilians (mostly spouses and family) closely related to the League.  As Queen of Atlantis, Mera qualified as both.  “Aquaman may be king, but he’s more diplomat to the rest of the world than ruler these days.”

“It’s Xebel isn’t it,” Raquel asked more than stated.  “She’s finally going to get him for it.”

“Maybe.” Dick didn’t sound very doubtful about it.

Raquel opted to sit in one of the generic visitors chairs outside of Zatanna’s room and Dick went to talk to the Leaguers about the day’s events.  Eventually though, a parched throat and a need to stretch her legs took her to the bathroom - she was pretty sure she passed a water fountain on the way by earlier.  She was on the way back when she saw Babs and Artemis slip out of Kaldur’s room and pass her towards the restroom.

~*~

After trading quiet greetings with Raquel, Bab’s waited until the door sealed shut automatically behind them.  “You sure you’re ok?” she checked once again, her voice low.  If Artemis really needed it, Babs was perfectly willing to erase the audio logs on the recorders Bruce installed in the rest rooms.  The redhead’s willingness to support her friends even at the risk of alienating the Bat made her a more welcome counsel for Artemis than Dinah.  Being Black Canary it was too easy to associate her with the League and alls its aloof righteousness - and arrogance.  “You looked like you were going to get to Kaldur or die trying out there today.  And you know I’m not saying that lightly..”

“...No,” Artemis responded languidly.  “We almost lost Kaldur.  Again.”  She turned to lean her forehead against the cool tiled wall.  “That’s three times.  I was freaking out Babs.  Kaldur and I have gone through so much together, I can’t...I can’t imagine trying to get back in with the Team…with someone else gone.” Artemis was trying to blink back the wetness in her eyes - too used to hiding her expression in a mask as Tigress to bother hiding it from a sharp and perceptive mind like Babs.

Babs wasn’t sure what to say to that.  Even with her working on a psychology degree between her computer science classes, it was hard for her to try putting herself in Artemis’s shoes.  How does one pretend to be Tigress and Aqualad deceiving the world and carrying the weigh of it on your shoulders?  She wasn’t sure she wanted to go there.  Even she was convinced by Kaldur, Artemis, and Dick’s ploy and, given Bruce’s angry lecturing, she wasn’t the only cape seriously concerned.  The pillars of the Team could work public and private opinion to cover their plans unnervingly well.  She still wasn’t on good talking terms with Dick Grayson once the cape went off.  Even more so trying to support Artemis.  Dick was turning into a hermit and his refusals to open up were getting more heated every time she asked.  Artemis had the other problem.  Opening up was easier with her, but where Dick stopped people from logically arguing sense into him by not talking at all, Artemis was willing to talk, but was harder to sway with logic.  All that heart and fire, Artemis was too passionate a person to assuage her own guilt with practicality.  Instead, Babs went for the tried-and-true method of friends-don’t-leave-friends-to-suffer hug and let Artemis bury her head in her shoulder.

After Artemis seemed steady on her feet again and withdrew, Babs pointed one good bit out.  “You almost said his name today.  I think you’re ready for the next step.”  Babs eyes were on her reflection as she adjusted her hood and hair.  She could feel Artemis glaring daggers into her back, but it was still worth mentioning, “Wally would never be happy with you moping like a kicked puppy the way he was when you went with Kaldur.  Talking to Dinah will be way better than me.  She doesn’t even charge.”

Artemis composed herself, then pointed out, “Neither do you.”

“Hmm...depends on how you look at it.  How many drinks do you owe me again?” Babs’ face was frighteningly innocent as she said this.

“You’re still underage,” Artemis grumbled, feeling more than a little like a spoilsport which Babs teasing her as a “stiff” didn’t help.  It was better than talking about Wally though.  Artemis joined Babs at the mirror and pulled back her hair too.  “At this rate, I’m going to get more white hairs than my mother…” She gave Barbara a quick glance. “If I have to eat bean soup like our Chinese neighbor tipped my mother, I’ll get so gassy I’ll have to leave the Team.”

Barbara chuckled.  “Could you imagine Dick writing up the mission report?”  She mimicked the dry tone he took on when reporting, “Mission failed because of a fart.  Recommend placing beans on dietary restriction for all Team members.  Indefinitely.”

“Dick so would not say ‘indefinitely,’” Artemis laughed fondly.  “He’s such a nerd.”

“That he is,” Barbara grinned, then looked away as if the mirror might hold some insight. _‘That he is.  And more...much more...but is that a good thing?  Or is that giving him more credit than he deserves?...’_

~*~

An hour later Dick stuck his head in the room Kaldur had been moved into.  The Team members assembled there looked at him questioningly.  “Zatara made it.  Dr. Mid-Nite says he’ll need to stay here for a while, but Queen Mera stopped by and she did something,” he twiddled his fingers to indicate magic, “that Mid-Nite said will get him on his feet in half the time it was going to.”  More than a few faces lit up, but Artemis motioned for him to continue.  He gestured towards her  “Zee seemed to be doing better.  She was starting to wake up, you want to come with?”

“You have to ask?”

“Catch you later,” Babs said, positioning herself in the door so that none of the others could follow.

“Hey, what gives?  Don’t we get to see Zee too?” Bart asked. Rapidly he went back and forth left and right of Babs until Tim tripped him up.  He hadn’t gotten a chance to thank the magician for helping Jaime yet.

“They’ve known her the longest - and they were heroing before her father was Fate.” Tim pointed out.

“Now Fate’s gone and Zatara’s back.  Bart, we’d only be in the way,” Karen sighed over her mug of cocoa before Mal kissed her frown away.  “It’s been a long day.  Let’s just give `em space.”

Bart might have continued to press his point if Jaime hadn’t put his hand on Bart’s shoulder.  “We’re out Batgirl.  You know where we can find Batman?”

“Uh...sure.”  She checked on her comm quickly.  “He’s in the meeting room.  Says he’ll wait for you.”

“Thanks”  Jaime shoved Bart out the door and closed it behind them.

“That was brilliant Jaime!  Way to razz my berries!  Now let’s go see Zee!”

Jaime looked at Bart, mortified by the turn of words.  “Do you actually know what you’re saying?”

“Sure!  You really totally crashed the mode! You razzed my berries.”  He emphasized the phrase with an enthusiastic arm pump.  Jaime looked around to see if anyone overheard and, seeing none, grabbed Bart’s collar and ran.  If he was fast, he could get them clear before anyone relatively up to date with the 21st century could witness another of the speedster’s attempts at slang.

“Hey heyheyhey! Where are we going?  That’s to the entrance - not the other rooms!”

“That’s the point Bart.  I said I need to talk to Batman.”

“About what?”

“Nothing.”

Bart frowned.  “Dude, for nothing, you’re making a pretty big deal out of it.”

“It’s nothing dude.”

“Hey I told you everything about me.  Well, pretty much everything.  Besides, what did we learn about keeping secrets when the Reach put you back on Mode?”

“I don’t want to talk about it Bart.”

Bart’s eyes glinted with mischief and narrowed.  “I’ll tickle you.”

Jaime froze.  “ _Hermano,_ ” he warned.  He tried to tighten his grip on Bart’s suit, but the speedster already vibrated through his grip and grabbed him by his sides. Jaime swore.  It seemed like a standoff since Bart couldn’t exactly force him to tell the truth, but Bart was at the advantage.  He was Cassie’s most eager accomplice in the tickle wars that the Team called “Movie Night.”

“What’cha planning Jaime?” Bart asked with a wicked grin and far too close as he looked up Jaime’s chin.

Jaime refused meeting Bart’s eyes, but...he did deserve the truth.  Even Khaji was getting suspicious about his “pubescent histronics.”  “It’s my parents.  I’m going to talk to my parents about the scarab and Blue Beetle and my ‘teenage mood swings’ while I was on mode.”

**_‘That course of action would be unwise Jaime Reyes.’_ **

Jaime ignored the scarab.  He had his hands full trying to answer Bart.  The speedster was shocked for a second, but then he began talking so fast Jaime couldn’t understand him anymore.

“A little help Khaj?”

 ** _‘The potential consequences that course of action risks outweigh any gains,’_** the scarab argued, ignoring Jaime to press his own arguments.  It was a lot harder to tune him out than Bart’s jabber which was incomprehensible anyways.

Arguing down Bart was one thing, but Bart _and_ Khaji?  Between dictionary-for-brains in his head and Mr.-ten-thousand-words-a-minute, Jaime couldn't make anything out a chance to say anything himself.  Then Khaji unintentionally interrupted himself to automatically announce,   _ **‘Translating.’**_

“Translating?  Translating what?”  Jaime wondered aloud.

He finally caught a soft voice to the right.  “I thought this kind of closeness among males wasn’t normal?”  Bart noticed Jaime had stopped trying to argue and followed his gaze at the Atlanteans in armor murmuring to each other.

“Their customs are quite volatile,” the one on the right muttered.  Neither noticed the capes had stopped fighting to listen in on their conversation.  “I admit I still don’t understand those obscure icons of rapid popularity heralded as ‘means’ and the act of committing bizarre acts shared with others ‘for the wine.’”

“Maybe it’s a sign of the progress of surface societies with diverse sexual orientations?” his left comrade posited.

Bart immediately zipped back three steps away from Jaime.  Jaime stared and then something Khaji muttered then set the gears in his head spinning.  “Wait…Bart you can - ?”

“It appears our young friends understand more than you might think, guards.” The voice was of a composed woman and lilted with good humor.  It was also in English.  Bart and Jaime looked at the dignified woman in Atlantean robes.  Her green gown and static hairstyle were accommodations towards the specious tastes of surface world formal clothing, but it didn’t take Jaime long to work out who would be on the Watchtower unannounced and dressed like that.

“ _Ay!  Dios mio!_ I-I mean my apologies.  Ur, your-your majesty.”  Jaime ducked a clumsily over-exaggerated bow that Mera had seen those unsure how to relate to royalty resorted to many a time.  Bart was only a second behind, but overbalanced and caught himself from a face plant in his abrupt haste and own inexperience.  Jaime stared unabashedly at the other boy, his brown cheeks flushing red at the absolute debacle she had caught them in.

 _‘Or maybe he has another reason,’_ Mera allowed herself to wonder.  She graciously bowed her head, using the moment to compose herself and mask her amused smile.  “I am glad to see the circumstances have not dampened the spirits of the young.”  She immediately regretted the choice of words there.  It was bad enough La’gann gave the Team the wrong impressions of Atlantean culture by conflating English sea-puns with Atlantean curses.  She was going to be the bad water-joke mermaid queen wasn’t she?  On the other hand, she heard the new Kid Flash was from an apocalyptic future.  Mera really hoped that meant he was spared the _Little Mermaid_ in his childhood.  It was bad enough hearing grown men try to relate with her that way, never mind Barry’s supposed grandson

The one grace of their evident discomfort with her presence was that they didn’t seem to entertain that train of thought.  Bart was back on his feet in the blink of an eye and Jaime seemed to remember.  “Oh, uhmm.  Kal - .  Aqu - .  Uhhhhhh.”

Mera shook her head.  “Nightwing has already informed me that he is as well as can be.  I am simply waiting for my husband to finish conferring with Batman before he returns to Atlantis.”  She tried adding a bit more warmth to her voice along with a small smile and was rewarded with a sheepish smile from the Hispanic boy.

“Oh!  We need to talk to Batman!  Come on Bart, don’t want to keep the Bat waiting!” staying on the safe side he promised Mera, “We’ll, er, inform his...Majesty you await here.”  Mera politely nodded her thanks and watched the youngsters leave in a hurry.

Mera sighed once she was sure they were alone.  “By the way.  They’re ‘memes’ and ‘for the vine.'  Atlan, have you and I been reading the same information reports?’”

“Why would they degrade themselves over plant, Koryak?” Atlan, her guard who couldn’t seem to grasp the terms, asked his companion.  Mera failed to hold back a groan even as her lady guards, Nuada and Chian, snickered.  It wasn’t like she could shut them up either - they were the ones who wrote it and were avid users of surface technology.  In fact, Atlan was the only one who didn’t seem to have much of an interest.  His sorcery was brilliant.  If only she could say the same of his interest in other cultures.  Then Nuada shifted and Mera caught sight of the cell phone in her guard’s hand.  She sighed again.  “Save the social media for off duty please guardswoman.”

“Yes ma’am.”  “Yes my lady.”  Mera shot Chian a dirty look.  The other young woman was adjusting her pockets.

“Unbelieveable!  You were on Twitter again Chian?”  Mera steepled her forehead with her fingers.

“Continued exposure is necessary to understand the constantly shifting interests of the surface society,” Chain meekly offered, curse her silver tongue.  Then not so meekly, “At your command,” she reminded Mera.

“Koryak,” Mera addressed her head guard, “This is **not** what I had in mind when suggested an update on what appeals to the youth of the surface.”

“Nor I your majesty,” Koryak blandly replied.  His deep voice was neutral and his attention  vigilantly remained on her highness’s safety.  He carefully tuned out Mera grumbling into her hand about ungrateful brats and the dangers of modern technology.  It would be best to be vague when posting about this on the chat board later tonight.  Mera had an uncanny way of finding out what was discussed on there.

**_Watchtower - July 6, 2016 6:23 EST_ **

Through the room’s small window, Kaldur made out the gleaming golden highlights of the Atlantean Royal Guard’s armor and his stomach cramped.  Dick leaned back and stared at the out the window himself as the door opened and familiar Koryak who had helped tutor Kaldur at the Academy stuck his head in.  He nodded to the two capes, but gave no hint of intimacy with Kaldur beyond that.  “Her Majesty, Queen Mera of Atlantis would like to speak with Aqualad.”

Mera bore herself regally as she entered the room without waiting for either of the young men to respond.  “Would you kindly give us privacy Nightwing?”  It phrased as a question, but the tone was unmistakably a command - one that Mera expected Dick to oblige.  Dick was under no illusion what Mera might do if he disobeyed.  Dick gave Kaldur a wide-eyed look, but Kaldur forced himself to nod to Dick.  He didn’t trust his voice not to crack into pieces from his own anxiety and fear if he tried to tell his friend to leave the room.

Koryak closed the door behind Nightwing, but took a position by the door and stared straight out the window -  somehow unfazed by the dawning sun peeking out beyond the Earth’s curvature.  How lovely, at least Kaldur would have a witness for his execution command.  Misery loves company, or so the surface saying goes right?

Mera herself took Dick’s seat.  Her eyes met his and he flinched despite him trying to prepare him for this moment.  This was not the kindly Mera who had helped instruct him in magic and helped him grieve through Tula’s death.  This was the Queen of Atlantis and he her one-time pupil and traitor.

“Good morning Kaldur.  I suspect you know what this is about?”

“I believe I have an idea my lady.”  The adage was automatic, too easy to let slip from his lips and too easy to immediately regret as Mera’s eyes flashed.

Her voice was calm, almost serene as she regarded him down her nose.  “Lets get straight to the matter.  Kaldur’ahm.  You are accused of crimes against the throne of Atlantis and her people, of treasonous behavior and actions, and you stand responsible for the deaths of many of Atlantis’s citizenry.  Have you anything to say?”

It was easier for Kaldur to look at his navel than Mera.  Easier to vaguely look at the space where his arm was out of the corner of his eyes.  Easier to contemplate Klarion’s casual cruelty in his face when he tore off Kaldur’s arms than to meet the composed face Mera presented him.  “I do not.”

“...Kaldur’ahm... Have you have anything to say of the massacre that took place in Our city of Xebel?”

“I do not.”

Mera spent the next few minutes laying out crimes before Kaldur, reminding him of every unlawful behavior, every life affected, every sin he committed to and demanded a reaction each time.  At last Mera imperiously leaned in and called Kaldur’s name.  When he refused to raise his eyes to meet her gaze properly, she grabbed his chin and forced him to face her properly.

“Kaldur.  You killed my sister, Hila of Xebel.  The _Living Saint_ of Xebel.  Have you anything to say?”  Mera demanded in that same dispassionate voice.

Kaldur’s lips felt numb and he fumbled on the automatic “I do not.”  Then he met Mera’s eyes squarely.  “I killed your sister,” he said evenly.

Kaldur expected Mera to fly into a rage, aloofness; he even speculated tears in moments of madness.  He was not expecting exasperated melancholy.  “Kaldur’ahm, it is supposed to be a virtue to be so honest.  Yet you make it a flaw.  You are as self-deprecating as ever.”  Mera shook her head sadly.  “For all that you are an excellent leader, you are still far too willing to believe the worst of yourself.”  She let go of his chin and sank back into her chair.

“I cannot fully blame you for my sister’s death as it was Black Manta’s hand that killed her, not yours.  Yet you are still responsible for providing him that opportunity.  Even though I cannot entirely blame you, I cannot forgive you either Kaldur.  You will have to live your life and condemn yourself to forever make up for the lost lives of Xebel.  Regardless of how you do it, I have come to tell you one thing.

This may not be the last of your sentences by Our decree, but I consider it the one that will define any We pass to you in the future.  You are to remain Atlantean, and your citizenship will be confirmed as such with the League and the U.N.  You may report freely to your duties with the League on King Orin’s discretion.  But.  Henceforth you are barred from swimming in Atlantis’s waters again.  Never are you to visit Our cities or seas.  You are dead to Atlantis, and by Atlantis, you are dead to the world.  Have you anything to say?”

“...I do not.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Believe it or not, this story is not all angst and darkness. I have bad jokes too! Consider this setup and me getting a feel for the old Team so I can bring in the Titans and have them cement into the Team better.
> 
> What do you think of Mera? She'll make an appearance down the line so I thought this was a good chance to get a feel of the Mera I want to write. She seems a bit...tied down in the comics and the one appearance I saw in the Justice League cartoon so I'm hoping to give her more than the aloof queen archetype.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The League and the Team settle down to discuss business one month into their reformed partnership. Zatanna raises a pressing question and some secrets come to light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new chapter of the companion piece can be found under "Evocation: Static"
> 
> Young Justice, Teen Titans, Static Shock, and others works whose characters and stories are used and referenced in this fic are not my property. The convoluted plot is though. :3

_**Watchtower - August 6, 2016 21:00 PDT** _

For this occasion, the founding members of the Team and their closest advisors were gathered on the Watch Tower to discuss how the Team and the League could coordinate their efforts in their new relationship.  It was a bit humbling admitting that the Team was having trouble interacting with the League.  But, at least it  wasn’t for the same reasons everyone expected.  The Team may not have had as much experience, but given their line of work and nature as heros-in-training, teamwork and coordination were vital to their routine.  Those qualities weren’t exactly what the League’s powerhouse emergency responders and public keepers of the peace were used to.  Even large scale missions tended to quickly devolve into “beat up the bad guys before they blow up too much” anyways.

Once everyone had taken a seat, Kaldur nodded.  “As you are all aware, we must consider the direction of the Team now that it will we be working with the League and now that the Light has extended its reach to the stars and beyond.”  He sat down, his prosthetic arm ringing slightly as he settled in his seat and banged it on the edge of the table.  Dick’s gaze lingered on the construct.  It didn’t have the gizmos and whirli-gigs Aresnal’s Lexcorp model had, but it resisted deep-sea pressures, was waterproof, could handle channeling Kaldur’s Atlantean magic. Kladur’s body hadn’t been rejected during the trial week so far and it was a damn sight better than when Klarion tore the limb off.  He had to thank Virgil’s friend Gear for that piece of work again and Raquel’s husband for offering the fruits of his research for Gear to work with so eagerly.  Seeing it also reminded Dick of when Zatanna mentioned seeing an arm during the ritual where Dr. Fate was taken, it didn’t take a genius for them to all draw a connection.  Now Zatanna was researching what the ritual had done exactly while Kaldur recovered and did desk work overseeing the Team’s transition to Jump City.

“The Warworld was seen at Rimbor, but vanished after Savage broadcasted a warning to leave Earth alone,” Dinah reported, repeating old news because it was all they had.  “At the moment, no one seems to know where it has gone as its trail seems to vanish, though boom-tube traces suggest some sort of link with Apokolips.”

“We are not sure what the Light will plan on now,” Red Tornado picked up where Canary left off.  “It is clear that in the past they have been pushing the limits of their assets and one can only imagine what they learned from the Reach’s meta-gene research.  Now that they have been directly foiled in their Reach endeavor for the second time since its founding, the Team will likely be in their crosshairs as much as the Justice League is if not more.”  He scanned the gathered faces around the table in turn.  “You all have proven to be incredibly resourceful and talented individuals as well as on a team.  But the machinations of the Light are only to become more deadly.  The Team must be prepared and aware of the risks.”

Dick reviewed the highlights of the latest patrols and intelligence ops.  Kaldur’s debacle with Klarion was such a well-known secret among Leaguers that the details were unnecessary to recount and the same held true of Fate’s regression to plain old Giovanni Zatara.  He really regretted not bringing Batgirl given her investigation into Vandel’s disappearance, but he wasn't ready to face the League with only the snippets of talk and rumor circulating the underworld they had gathered.  There simply hadn’t been anything concrete over the last month despite their best efforts.  It was bad enough that there with the Light publicly ousted and broken, there were all sorts of super villain alliances flaring up around the world trying to take its place.  Nothing too threatening popped up yet, but it was keeping the League and the Team busy holding them in check by sheer numbers and locations being scattered around the world.  The Lex Luthor investigation was about as successful.

Dick spared a glance Connor and M’gann who looked about as happy to hear about Artemis’s reports on Lex Luthor during their absence as he was.  They had just come from the month long mission in time for the meeting this morning and had been hoping for more progress on that front - or so to put Connor’s outburst more politely.  It was infuriating to see Gordon mediate Luthor’s rise in the UN, nevermind his bullying to consolidate his political powerbase or the way Lexcorps cannibalized the Reach Drink.  The latter was funding all of Luthor’s current, unsavory enterprises by making a fortune selling the nutrient drink to health markets, world relief, and charities - the latter two a fact that Dick still found galling beyond belief.  It didn’t help that the Reach’s partnership had allowed them to greatly reduce production costs.  That edge on tech translated to cheaper prices pushing other companies, and competition, out of the market.  A classic case of the market’s invisible hand - Luthor’s that is.

The Light was broken, but backed in a corner and more dangerous than ever if Talia al Ghul’s renewed presence in its business was an indicator.  Luthor’s carefully safeguarded scheming in the shadows and the fiasco with the Warworld painted a bleak picture for the coming months of damage control on top of what was already done after the Reach.

“Question,” interjected Zatanna at last. Waiting for everyone’s undivided attention, she took a breath and got to her feet.  “What are we going to do about Klarion?” She gestured and the holo-display began to replay footage of Klarion seizing Dr. Fate’s helmet and vanishing from the incident three and a half weeks back.  “In case we forgot, Dr. Fate was our resident magical expert, with years of experience that even with my Father and I working together, can’t even begin to match.”  Another wave of her hand and the display reflected Mongol’s last ditch attack with the Warworld.  “If there’s another attack like this, and since the Warworld is now in the Light’s hands we have to assume they’re willing to use it as a threat, what will we do without Dr. Fate’s support?  None of us are capable of maintaining a protection that can deal with space threats like the one he used.  And we also have to assume we’re going to get more unwelcome visitors now that we know the extent of the 16 hours on Rimbor and how Savage used the Warworld to put Earth on every space chart in the galaxy.”

That wasn’t all that Zatanna had on her mind.  “That’s still not taking into account the Starrotech that the Light developed five years ago.   _Techno-sorcery._  We haven’t done any sort of interdisciplinary experimentation or developed effective generalized counter-tech since.  Now that Fate’s been put out of the picture, I don’t think Klarion’s going to hold back.  I think we need to start preparing for these kinds of…contingencies.”

Her piece said, Zatanna collapsed into her seat, trying to stave off a nervous headache – she may have earned a spot on the League, but she still wasn’t sure how she and the old/new Team members stood.  When Artemis touched her wrist though, Zee couldn’t help but grin and bask in the encouraging smile the blond gave her.

“These are all good points….and Zatara isn’t even fully recovered yet,” Dinah revealed.  She shot Zatanna a meaningful look and Zatanna nodded somberly.  “It may be that the spell Klarion used to take the helmet permanently took away Zatara’s magic.  As things stand, Zatanna is our senior magical member of the League.  There is no time, nor freedom, for any main member Justice Leaguer to study magic.  So…”

“Are you suggesting the Team start to take on the magic and inter-disciplinary angle?” asked Dick putting two and two together as he leaned in and laced his fingers together.

Red Tornado gave a curt nod.  “The Team is already supported by Aqualad and Lagoon Boy, both of who have backgrounds in two completely different fields of specialized magical studies.  This is opposed to the League which only can rely on Zatanna’s magical arsenal and the perks of Aquaman’s limited ability.  Furthermore, the League’s members are already…set in their ways.  Magical studies may distract them from skills the League retains them for in the case of emergencies now.  Garth – Tempest if you recall – has also requested a place on the team again in light of recent events to bolster your ranks.  Zatanna, Zatara, and Aquaman have also suggested a partnership with Atlantis and Queen Mera to begin teaching any on the Team with an aptitude and interest in magic so that when they graduate to the League itself, we will be prepared for any threats the Witch Boy and his kin may present us with.”

Conner raised his hand though.  “How many of us will actually be able to use magic though?  And will any of us be able to actually do anything to Klarion?  He’s not just any old magician.”

“Not to mention that now that Dr. Fate’s out of the way, won’t that affect Klarion’s powers?” added M’gann.  “There’s a balance between them right?  Some natural order vs chaos…thing.  If there’s no order…”

Zatanna nodded.  It was time to put her cards on the table.  “We have to assume the worst-case scenario.  The Light has always been two steps ahead of us and we only foiled the Reach because Aqualad and Artemis went in so deep.  There’s no guarantee what we start by partnering with the Academy in Atlantis will work right away, but it’s more than whatever the League can manage alone and just that makes it worth it.  I’ve begun contacting a few friends of mine,” Zatanna pressed a button and the holo-display pulled up several bios complete with ID pictures and intensive background checks.  “They’re just as affected by Dr. Fate’s disappearing act and some have already reached out offering help.  We can stop the Light if they try any magic shows of their own for now, but in the long run?  We’re at a big disadvantage after relying on Dr. Fate to do the heavy lifting for us and expecting he’d stick around to do so.”

“So we have two agendas regarding the Light,” sighed Dinah, trying to stave off a headache of her own by massaging her forehead.  “One is to assess and prepare against an Apokolips incursion.  The other is to prepare for a magical campaign led by Klarion.  The Team will have to be a part of both, all the more so because they’ll be with the main members of the League.”

“But as equals,” cut in Kaldur, ice in his voice.  “None of us will settle for anything less.  We are not your wards to coddle on or off these assignments.”  Even with Batman’s claim, the Team was still headstrong and chafing at authority after their relatively free reign to act during the Reach campaign.  Conner had gotten to his feet to say the same, but sat down nodding at Kaldur as M’gann gave the Atlantean an approving smile.  All around the table, the founding members of the Team voiced their assent.  “You tell ‘em!” cheered Raquel.

Dinah’s mouth quirked in a grin. _‘Some things never change,’_ she thought to herself.  She of course, agreed.  These supposed ‘kids’ had put in too much work and placed their lives on the line as often as the League did.  They deserved this.  

“Naturally, we will bring these ideas up with the others members of the League.  But I believe your records and observations speak for themselves.  I will of course give Zatanna’s proposal in this measure for the Team my complete support,” intoned Red Tornado.   There was a surprisingly human pride in his inflection.

“And mine,” said Dinah warmly.  Since Captain Atom passed on the role of leading the League to her, she technically had authority near the level of the original seven to propose the measure.  Not that she anticipated any objections.  After the fiasco with the Reach, the understanding of the missing 16 hours at Rimbor, and the rise of alien and metahumans; more and more countries around the world were putting political pressure on the League to include their local superpowered representatives.  Cramming the Team’s suggestions onto the agenda was only tit for tat given the way the League handled the Team in its first iteration. After all, the worst it did was add more names onto the list to review for membership.  They were going to have a long haul of that as it was anyways.  “I suggest we leave things here and continue the discussion with the Team itself once they reconvene,” she nodded to the others and rose to her feet.  The young men, women, and aliens around the room nodded and the meeting was adjourned.

Dick had downloaded Zatanna’s recommendations and gave them one more look-over on his arm display before getting to his feet himself.  He saw that Raquel was already heading towards the zeta tubes telling Artemis and Zee something about Amistad and a babysitter.  On the other side of the room, M’gann and Connor were being debriefed by Kaldur over their and Gar’s mission to Mars which they had only just returned from in time for the meeting.  He was torn between asking Zee more about the magic training and hearing from the three from Mars.  Dick finally got to his feet himself, curiosity to hear what had kept the couple off-world for as long as a month winning out, when a firm hand rested itself on his shoulder.

“Dick, do you have a moment?”

Dick inwardly sighed, but forced himself to nod chipperly.  “What’s up BC?”

“I keep telling you that ‘Dinah’ will be just fine.”  An amused smile played on her face.  Her smile faded and a carefully neutral expression replaced it.  “I just wanted to check on you.  You’ve been playing hard to catch for a while now.  I just wanted you to know that if you need to talk to anyone about…Wally, that I’m here for you.”  Dinah cut him off as he opened his mouth.  “Not as a shrink - though if you need my help as such, don’t hesitate to ask.  I’m saying this as a friend, and as someone just concerned about your wellbeing.  

“B – Dinah.  Thanks, but what is there to talk about?”

“I sort of gathered you’d say that from the way you didn’t respond to any of the League’s messages.”

“I have something to tell Artemis…news I think she deserves first.  Can this wait until after that?”

Dinah blinked and then her eyes opened wide with understanding.  “You can’t mean to say that you found something out about Wally do you?”  She seized his arm in an iron grip.  “Dick, there’s Artemis’s mental well-being to consider.  She’s made a lot of progress in the last few days with me and only just started to feel comfortable talking about Wally with the others again.  You will be careful what you tell her won’t you?”

Hesitating for a moment, Dick met her eyes and nodded.  “I’ll do my best.”

“I’m trusting you,” She gave his shoulder a fond squeeze with a steely hint of warning in that grip before reluctantly letting go and returning to confer at Red Tornado’s side.  Pushing second thoughts to the back of his mind, Dick made it to the M’gann, Conner, and Kaldur.

“… so B’razz is finalizing the plans for a Martian orbital outpost for the League.  He says that the facility could be active as early as next month,” finished M’gann.  Her eyes caught on Dick then.  “Dick!” she grinned and took a step forward, arms outstretched.  He stepped into the embrace and squeezed the team member that was as close to a sister to him.

“Hey Meg.  Missed you.”  Dick tousled her hair.  “Connor.”  Conner nodded back.  “So what’s this about a League outpost on Mars?”

“It was the same mission I assigned them the night you…resigned,” Kaldur explained.  Dick had left before getting more details and had been tied up with his own research since he had helped Kaldur the month before.  “In light of the interest of groups such as the Reach, Mars is suggesting a partnership with the League to ensure both planets’ continued prosperity. B’razz requested the League’s assistance to facilitate discussion with the Martian Council and to locate and dismantle any pre-emptive projects the Reach may have left on Mars.”

Dick raised a finger to tap his lips thoughtfully, Hmm…that kind of partnership sounded useful, but...  “I’m just glad to see you two back on Earth.  Well, almost,” he grinned giving the window looking out on Earth a meaningful look.  After a few more minutes of chatter, catching everyone up on each others’ lives over the last month, Dick noticed Artemis heading towards the zeta tubes and excused himself to chase after her.

 _‘Shouldn’t we have told him Connor?’_ asked M’gann over their mental link as she watched him go and Kaldur mentioned a need to talk to Black Canary and Red Tornado.

Connor didn’t so much as shake his head. _‘Not now, later’s fine.’_   M’gann give him a faint nod and they told Kaldur “good night.”  Nonetheless, M’gann shot their brooding friend a concerned look over her shoulder.

~*~

“Artemis! Could I have a moment?”

“Uh…sure Dick…” Artemis waved off Zatanna who stopped and stood at a respectful distance from the conversation.  “Haven’t seen much of you in the last month.  You’re looking...”

 _‘Like crap probably.’_ Dick shoved the thought away and focused on the news at hand.  “I’ve been researching and Zee found something interesting at the North Pole.  I’ve been running tests and I’m still not sure Wally’s disappearing act was fatal.  If he had actually vaporized, there should’ve been some traces of – “

Artemis’s polite expression had quickly devolved into a full blown scowl over the course of the exchange and at this point she cut off her friend with an angry wave of her arm.  “What?  Really Dick, really?  That there’s a chance that Wally is still out there because you didn’t find bits and pieces of him scattered around the North Pole like confetti?  Is that supposed to be helping Dick? _Wally’s gone!_ ” she cried in his face, anger pulsing in her mind and welling up the more she said.  “Give it up!  If he’s alive, he would’ve returned by now!”  She realized she was starting to tear up and dashed them from her eyes.  Frustrated at herself now too, she lay into Dick who had sagged and was staring at his feet, unwilling to contest her.  If anything, that set her off even more. “Why are you so hung up on this?  We’ve all made our peace with it, get a grip and get over yourself!  You’re no better than Roy was!  Is that how you want to end up?  Chasing shadows and wasting away??”

Her outburst was drawing the attention of the others still around.  Dinah had already stormed halfway to the pair, but Zatanna beat her.  Torn between her friendship with Dick and her wish to support Artemis, she hoped she could diffuse the argument if there was someone else to distract from the argument.  She gave Dick a sad look, but carefully grasped Artemis’s arm with a firm squeeze.  Emboldened when the former archer fell silent, but didn’t shake her off, Zatanna coiled her arms around Artemis’s shoulder.  “Dick…maybe, now’s not the time for this?” she suggested gently.

Dick nodded and walked away.  He didn’t meet Dinah’s flashing eyes as she stormed by him, but M’gann crossed his path and pulled him aside with tugs on his arm.

Zatanna tore her gaze away and steadied Artemis as Dinah shared a few private words with the suddenly mute woman.  Artemis shook her head and nodded in turn, looking past done with the whole affair.  She had recently confided to Zatanna that she was tired of the counseling, tired of the concern and babying and just wanted closure over Wally.  “I’m feeling off tonight Dinah.  Give me some room?”  Dinah nodded and stepped back.  Turning to Zatanna, Artemis swept her bangs aside revealing a suddenly pallid and wan complexion.  “Pit stop, Zee, walk with me to the bathroom?”

~*~

“Dick, can I talk to you?” M’gann asked, partly for formalities, partly to buy a bit more time to figure out what she wanted to share with Dick about her, Connor, and Gar’s travels.

Dick shrugged, he didn’t care either way.  He fucked up big time.  He really should’ve known better than to try and do that, especially since Dinah had warned him not even five minutes ago!  How could he have let himself forget right after when he was talking to M’gann, Connor, and Kaldur?  He was really losing it wasn’t he?

“Dick, I need to talk to you about Wally.  What you’re doing, it’s not healthy and I’m starting to get feedback from the way you’re projecting your thoughts.”  Dick winced, probably seeing it as another reason to blame himself.  He was probably projecting it to every psychic from here to Metropolis if she cared to lower her mental checks.  She sighed.   _‘At this rate, Uncle J’onn will know about how you feel about Wally before the week is out.’_ she switched over to telepathy.

Dick opened his mouth to protest and gave up.  “You don’t seem surprised.”

 _‘Perk of being a telepath and empath Dick.’_ she reminded him. _‘I figured out a while ago.  Being thirteen and hormonal isn’t exactly the best time to go hiding secrets of the heart.’_

 _‘Especially from prodigies like you, eh?’_ Dick responded likewise with a note of rueful defeat.   _‘When did you figure it out?’_

_‘About the same time Wally started hitting on me.’_

“He started hitting on you from day one.” Dick deadpanned.  

“As soon as we met actually,” she chuckled, remembering that moment that captured the essence of Wally fondly. _‘You learn a lot about other people from first impressions.  You were sooo happy to see Wally that excited, but I don’t think you realized your thoughts of Wally that way yourself yet.  I jumped to assumptions since sexual preference isn’t really a big concern given that we Martians are shape-shifters. And you two got along so well, I didn’t even have to reconsider it for a while until Artemis explained more of your culture to me.’_

Dick didn’t seem to have anything to say about that.  Connor crossed his arms though.  “Who’s hitting on you?” he asked Meg.  “Is this a private conversation?  Don’t I get to tell him about what Al’zark told us too?”

“Al’zark?” Dick asked, completely puzzled.  M’gann made a face.  She wasn’t sure if this was best time to drop the news on Dick after the way he was reeling from Artemis’ anger,

“A Martian researcher we were introduced to on Mars.  He actually had something to say that I think you might - “  The sound of Zee’s panicked voice screaming Artemis’s name from by the bathrooms, cut off M’gann and all three of them sprinted towards the sound of Zatanna’s voice.

~*~

Once Artemis emerged from the bathroom, Zatanna quickly stood to attention, ready to help and noting that Artemis still looked sallow and was favoring her right side as if her left was bothering her.  She...didn’t seem to carrying herself right.  Zatanna and Artemis had gone on patrols together and often after that fateful Halloween long ago.  They hobbled each other home on more than one occasion from their fair share of bruises.  But she had never seen Artemis look quite this wane or taxed, at least not the way she was dragging herself.  Was she sick?...

“You ok Arty?” she asked offering a hand that Artemis stared at contemplating for a moment before taking it.

“I’ve been better, I haven’t felt this off in a while,” she wheezed out as Zatanna leaned her against the wall.

“Maybe it’s just that time of month?” Zee teased lightly and offering the blonde a magically conjured wet-nap.

Artemis made a face.  “As if I’d let that bother me!  And if anyone else suggests that to me I’ll shove my fist so far up their - ”

“Yeah, yeah,” laughed Zee leaning against the wall herself, absently running her eyes over Artemis’s toned figure and the way the light made the former archer’s hair glow.  It was something she never got tired of watching, and a bit of the knot of worry for Artemis disappeared as she took in just what a hell of a woman her friend had grown into.  Then her mind caught up to her.   _‘Anyone else?’_  Did Artemis just let slip that this wasn’t the first time someone had brought this up with her?  

“Still, it won’t help if you catch cold.”  She had to tread lightly here.  Chiding, or appealing to caution would just make Artemis even more headstrong and refuse to acknowledge anything was off and tax herself further to try and prove it.  She had always admired that kind of determined, damned-if-I-care spirit in Artemis, but she had been party to enough stubborn denials from friends, AKA Dick, to handle Artemis if it came to that.  “It takes more than a few weeks to clear out a rat-hole like Jump City where every superpowered thief is ready to take the spotlight from the others.”

“Pssh,” Artemis flapped a hand at Zee.  “Those pushovers?  They’re nothing.  You should have seen the magician we bagged the other day - ‘The Amazing Mumbo Jumbo’ or some crap like that.  You’d have shown him the door with your pinkie.”  Her eyes sparked with bright humor.  “He caught Boy Wonder and Cass the other day - swapped their clothes with his wand like that was supposed to do something.  Tim’s should sport the sleeveless look more often though,” she joked with a wriggle of her brows that set Zatanna to giggles.

“That explains why I saw Wonder Girl trying on Bab’s old capes the other day then,”  Zee smirked trying to imagine Cassie in skintight red and a cape.  It...wasn’t a bad idea.

Artemis regaled her with a few more of the Teams blunders since then including one mishap when Static accidentally got a miniaturized Bumblebee stuck to Mal’s helmet for almost an hour as her boyfriend turned red as a tomato for the better part of that incident.  Artemis yawned as she wrapped that story up.  “Bed time,” she declared and abruptly pushed herself off the wall.  She hobbled off so abruptly Zatanna was still scrambling to her feet when when the other girl shuffled three steps, swayed, and then collapsed with a groan in a faceplant on the floor.  Dinah had taught them how to fall without hurting themselves.  Artemis’s collapse just now looked nothing like how she had been trained.

“Artemis?” Zatanna fell to her knees and gently shook the unconscious blond.  “Arty?  Artemis?  ARTEMIS!?”

Dinah was by them almost a beat after she crouched.  “What’s wrong?”

“She just collapsed!”  Zatana tried to compose herself like she was giving a mission report.  Her hands shook, but it helped wall off the panic.  “We were talking when she just got up and then collapsed.  Uh, she tried walking and then, just fell over.”

“And before that?”

“She was in the bathroom…”

Dinah fixed Red Tornado with an urgent look.  “Red Tornado, do a sweep of the bathroom - see if there was something in there.”

The android nodded.  “Doctor Mid-Nite has been notified.  She is on her way from the med-bay,” he intoned.  His hurried flight into the restroom hinted at his own concern over Artemis.  Then Dinah’s communicator beeped.  Betty began drilling Dinah for details and cautioning them to not move Artemis so long as she was breathing properly.  Aqualad and Dick helped Dinah convince the others to keep back as Zatanna tried to administer to her fallen friend.  She knew quick fixes for cuts and burns, but never looked into the healing arts.  She vowed to start as she bit her lip and muttered a diagnostic spell she was patching together on the fly.

A short while later, Dr. Mid-Nite burst in the room only to pause and slow.  She raised an elegant eyebrow noticing her supposed patient teeming with mystical energy and Zatanna’s head bowed in rapt concentration over the fallen girl.  “Black Canary,” she asked, the urgent authority of a doctor bleeding through her polite demeanor of interacting with a well-known yet personally unfamiliar pillar of the League, “What is she doing?”

Dinah tore her gaze from the bathroom just as Red Tornado emerged to settle on the magician.  “Zatanna?”

The magician caught her a bit off guard as she flipped her head up.  “She’s pregnant!”  Zatanna blurted out with wide-eyed shock.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the heavy exposition and shorter chapter. The next two chapters are also going to be more expository scene-setting, but I hope the character dynamics are unfolding well enough. I really want to write some action for you though. Politics, no matter how well thought out, are not the same as reading about our beloved girls and boys kicking ass and saving lives. :(
> 
> Also sorry that I'm late. Working on this and the companion piece is a bit much, but my need to write fighting drove me a bit batty yesterday towards a AtLA/ALoK follow up series. Maybe I'll post it. Maybe I'll burn it and dance around the fire singing the coconut song. Who knows?


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Team catches up in a more intimate setting after Zee's revelation. Meanwhile the Light schemes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Young Justice, Teen Titans, Static Shock, and others works whose characters and stories are used and referenced in this fic are not my property. The convoluted plot is though. :3

_**Watchtower - August 6, 2016 22:44 PDT** _

“Vertigo?” scoffed Artemis.  She wasn’t sure if she was skeptical or offended that her body had betrayed her that way.  Instead she mulled it over and accepted another glass of water M’gann floated her from the other side of the room.  M’gann herself leaned against the wall opposite her, head rested on Connor’s shoulder in the crook of his arm.  Since the two were almost the same height these days, with M’gann unconsciously maintaining her forms’ biorhythms and growth to match a normal human’s, she wouldn’t be surprised if the Martian shrunk herself just to be able to do that.  It looked as comfortable as Artemis remembered, and she squashed that jealous train of thought and wrecked the station as she slouched over her drink.

The only people in the room were the founding members of the team.  Racquel’s image floated from a projection Dick had set up so she could listen in on the meeting.  One absence was keenly felt by all.  Or maybe not, thought Artemis as she tried not to stare at her belly again.

She instead looked at the others.  Kaldur stood to her left, looking out the impressive view of space as he gave her, them all, time to process the surprising news.  He rubbed his prosthetic absently in the silence.  Dick had seemingly decided, and was correct, that that he wasn’t Artemis’s favorite person in the world and sulked in the shadow of the door.  He was ready to excuse himself in case he felt he was dumb enough to set her off again before bringing down the wrath of Mother Black Canary.  The former Den-mother was standing guard against curious bystanders outside the room, mother henning in the most bodily threatening way Artemis had ever seen.   Zee was her anxious nurse, sitting with over alert patience next to the bed on the right.  The vertigo comment had been for her and she shrugged for Artemis’s benefit.  It made sense, morning sickness, getting up suddenly.  If the shoe fit… At least Artemis didn’t faint for the hell of it.  The refined and professional Dr. Mid-Nite’s shift had ended and she had tagged off with a stern-faced Japanese woman with intensely observant eyes.  Dr. Light, as she had introduced herself in self-assured if accented English, had given them a moment of privacy to talk things out.

Now that Raquel’s presence was set up, it was about time to talk.  About what, Artemis was sort of clueless.   _\- “Did you know?” -_ Raquel asked speaking the question on everyone else’s mind.

That answer was easy and honest at least.  “No, I didn’t,” she ruefully admitted.  “I’ve been so busy in JC (Jump City as the Team over-efficiently referred to their new stomping grounds), I thought I was just overworking and not getting enough sleep.  Or that I was sick.  Really, really sick.  And not running a temperature.”  She stared into her water, feeling dumber by the moment.  All the signs had been there.  How could she have missed them?  Then again there had been the endless visits from friends, calls to missions, bonding sessions as they set up the Team and settled the metahumans popping up all over the world.  Feeling less guilty about herself, she drank the water.

“But how?  You were on the sub with M’gann and Kaldur,” asked Raquel, ever curious.

Artemis flushed, and ran her hand through her unbound hair.  “It was before we crashed the Reach’s meeting.  Uh...Wally was uhm...very happy to see me...in more ways than one,” she turned crimson seeing Raquel roll her eyes on the feed over the way Artemis was dancing around with her words.  Zee also turned pink and looked away but Artemis missed the way Dick shifted on his feet.  M’gann didn’t though.  And by extension - neither did Connor.  The metahuman regarded his girlfriend and the moody man by the door stoically.  Kaldur didn’t move, He was looking at Artemis, but his body still faced the window.   His thoughts were masked behind a carefully composed expression of diplomatic neutrality.

Once again it was Raquel who broke the silence.  “So.  What does this mean?  Is Tigress out of the scene?”

That got everyone’s attention.  Kaldur and Dick caught each other’s eyes.  The former with a wordless query, Dick with eyes scrunched as he weighed the options.  It was Artemis sitting ramrod stiff with shock and her vehement “WHAT?” that commanded the others focus though.

“Maybe she’s right Artemis,”  Zatanna cautioned.  “In your condition - “

“NO! Oh no, nononononononono.  I just got out of retirement, I am not going back in!  I lost Wally already.” She swallowed a sob angrily.  “I am not going to give up the cape and mask one more -”

“Artemis, that’s enough” Kaldur was using his battlefield commander projection - not yelling, but loud and clear enough to cut through the sound of battle.  Artemis perfunctorily clapped her mouth shut, then checked herself and scowled.  She hadn’t gone through hell with Kaldur under the sea with Black Manta to be treated like the newbie on the team who couldn’t take care of herself.  She was about to say as much when Dick butted in.

He spoke quickly before Artemis could try to shut him down too.  “You said you lost Wally once already, are you willing to lose him again?”  That got through to her and she went limp, a marionette whose strings had been cut.

“....I’m not some thing you can order around and shut down just ‘cuz of what’s going on with my body.” She growled her words, but her eyes didn’t carry the passionate anger they had before.

“And we are not in any position to,” Kaldur nodded.  “We will defer to your decision.  But we are not objecting as your teammates, we are objecting as your friends.”

Raquel nodded and M’gann stepped to the end of the bed.  “Do you really want to risk Wally’s last legacy on the job?  It’s your right,” the Martian prefaced.  “But, how would you feel if something happened to your child?  I’m not trying to shelter you or chain you to your baby, but…”  M’gann paused, uncomfortable, before lacing her forearms together anxiously.  “Families are very important on Mars.  Think of its life before you do this.  You can always get back to the job afterwards.”

“M’gann,”  Zee cut in, frowning slightly.  “How long is pregnancy for Martians?”

M’gann blinked.  “Green Martians and White Martians carry the child for something about a month.  We, Martians, are hardy after all and the genetic flexibility that lets us shapeshift means we adapt quickly after birth.”  Then her eyes widened and she face-palmed.  “Hello Megan…”  She shot Raquel a rueful look.  “Human pregnancies take nine months don’t they?”

Raquel smirked in acknowledgement and raised a point of her own. _\- “I’d be happy for Amistad to have a little playmate, but…Arty.  What do you really want to do?” -_  All eyes turned to Artemis again.

“I’m going to need time to think,” she softly deflected the question.  Raising her head, she had a question of her own.  “What happened on Mars Mg’ann?  Mars didn't need you, Connor, and Gar for a month just to decide they’d build another useless satellite.  Unless this one actually does something?

“Actually,” Kaldur spoke up, “it will be a zeta hub.  Mg’ann and Connor are going to visit Adam Strange in Taos STAR Labs in a few days days.  There they will see if his upgrades to Sardeth’s zeta-shield can link up with this new network.”

“It’s why things took so long.  It took a long time to talk around the council to bridging our planets,” M’gann explained.  “Even getting them to accept it being offworld took a week.”

“They’re scared,” Connor pointed out.

“Can’t blame ‘em.” Zatanna cupped her face in one hand and looked away.  “The Warworld is still out there and Mars got a close up on what nearly destroyed their friendly neighbor Earth.”

“And let us not forget that there was a mole among the Martian space fleet command,” Kaldur sighed.  “It is good for our sake that Mars considers B’arzz an inside informant rather than a traitor.”

“It wasn’t that way at first.  Believe me,” Connor’s annoyance was plain, as ever.

“So how are things on your end Dick?” M’gann asked

Dick shrugged clearly reluctant to get involved in the conversation.  “Research.  Like Zee.”

“But what on?” M’gann insisted on prodding him for details.

“...Stuff.”

Artemis slurped loudly - drawing the sound out and very clearly goading Dick with her  eyes on him with the same intensely he used to stare at the tiled floor.  Kaldur had a rueful quirk of his mouth as he looked back out the window.  “Artemis.  If you have something to say, say it.”

“Already said ‘nough boss,” she commented drily.

Feeling it fell to her to mediate again, Zatanna spoke up, “Anything from my lead?”

Dick nodded, but Artemis gave her a suspicious glance.  “What lead?”  Zatanna hesitated, weighing how badly Artemis might take the news that she was helping Dick looking into Wally.

“I asked her assistance as a professional to look in at the North Pole.”  Zatanna was startled into looking up and caught Dick’s eyes on her with an unreadable glint in his eyes before he glared back at Artemis for all he was worth.

 **“Don’t drag Zee into your BS Dick!”** Artemis snapped.  Dick looked away again and moved to head out the door.

M’gann threw her hands out and the door held fast despite Dick’s tugging. “Wait! Dick, Artemis!  Connor and I know something you should hear about.”

Everyone quieted to give the Martian their full attention.  Connor was by her side again then, his hand warm and steady as he slipped it to rest at the small of her back.  With that kind of support, how was M’gann not supposed to feel like she could take on the world?  “Something else came up on Mars.”  M’gann’s eyes glowed green and those present were pulled into a psychic slideshow.

 _'Ever since the Reach invaded Earth, there’s been an uptick in activity from the edge of our system._  ' The Collector's attack on New York City came to mind.   _Like the Collector of Worlds, some wanted to catalogue our system for posterity like a scrap book.'_ Next to fill everyone’s mind was an image of Despero bringing down the Hall of Justice.  ' _Others came looking for a fight.  Still others came for refuge.'_ Despero gave way to the image of a girl in purple with orange skin, Fiery red hair fell down her back in a smooth curtain, and her brilliant peridot eyes lingered like a hole in everyone’s mind.

 _'This is Koriand’r.  She claims to come from a planet called Tamaran.  She tells us that the Warworld came to Tamaran two weeks ago and began a massive offensive.  Supposedly her people are born to fight and fight well.  She’s at Connor’s level in terms of raw strength, she can fire energy blasts, and fly.  She says most Tamaranians are the same way.  As you can imagine, that didn’t stop the Warworld.  She escaped somehow and has been following rumors since, nearly killing herself crossing the galaxy to get to us.'_  The mental link faded and everyone was brought back to reality.

“OK, now we know where the Warworld is, what does that have to do with us M’gann?”  Artemis cried.

Her frustration competed with Kaldur’s composed voice undercutting her and asking, “Why did you not bring this up earlier M’gann?  Why not with the League and Black Canary?”

 _\- “Wait, what just happened?” -_  Raquell demanded from the communicator.  She had been completely left out of the psychic loop.  Everyone’s voices rose until Connor finally yelled **_“Enough!”_**

Everyone stared at him in uneasy silence.  Connor settled back, “We didn’t say this earlier because there is no such planet as Tamaran.”  With a confused quiet falling at last, Connor continued.  “Politics kept us on Mars, but while we were waiting, we did research.  We called in favors.”

“There are no records of Tamaran with the Guardians of the Universe.  None with Rimbor’s Polygloture, the Thanagarians, or the Rannian Science Command,” M’gann sighed.

“No one has ever heard of Tamaran on New Genesis either,” Connor growled, “and the reason why this bothers us is that Tamaran is supposedly in the same area as Rann.  Koriand’r knew all about Rann’s Science Command.  She could even name members on it!  And she cited trade agreements that Rann refuses to confirm with us.”

The uneasy silence grew oppressive at this point.  “But...what does this Koriand’r being here mean then?” Dick asked.

M’gann hugged herself wearily.  “I don’t know.  Me, B’arzz, and the most skilled memory reader on Mars - Al’zark - probed her mind for days.  It turns out Koriand’r was a princess there and she knows too much for anything to make sense.  Her memories are too rounded, too well thought out and complex with pointless details no planted memory would bother with.  Either she’s the most overthought and detailed fake person I’ve ever probed or something serious is going on beyond our solar system.  ”

“...so the reason you didn’t bring it up earlier was...”

“We had no proof Kaldur.  What were we supposed to say?” M’gann leaned back against the wall.  “An alien girl comes to Mars from nowhere, punches Connor through two sublevels of one of Mar’s most secure facilities and she doesn’t exist?”

“The fact that she mentions the Warworld alone is enough to make it the Team’s business,” Kaldur declared with an air of finality.  M’gann only hoped that the League would feel the same way.

“One more thing, Koriand’r bears marks of some rather extreme mental contamination.”   M’gann waved down everyone’s annoyed cries and protests.  “I know what I said, and I mean it!  We went through and checked what we could and what is there makes too much sense even muddled and filled with holes as it is!  Al’zark noticed something else though.  Her memories aren’t corrupted - something is erasing them bit by bit.  Moment by moment.  We tried fixing it, we tried everything we could think of to psychically fix it - but it’s just...nothing works...  Koriand’r is a clue to something big going on out there and we’re on the clock for learning what we can before she’s forgets who she is.” Her frustration spilled forth as she spoke and Artemis wondered how much of a loss M’gann was at.  Her uncle hailed her the strongest telepath in generations. Artemis helped her put together a mind she tore apart with that power and knew full well what M’gann was capable of with her mind.  To say that she hadn’t been able to do a thing for this girl...

Artemis was past the mood for this.  What happened?  It was going to be so simple, meeting done.  Go home and babysit Liam for the night.  There.  Now she found out she was pregnant, a planet had disappeared somewhere, and its vengeful warrior princess put the Warworld back on their agenda.  “Can this wait guys?  I’m not in the mood to talk about this right now.”  She drew up her knees and buried her face in them, hiding behind her hair from everyone’s staring.

Dick moved as if to speak but then clamped his mouth shut as Zatanna turned and glared at him something fierce.  The others barely looked among themselves before they agreed, said “good night,” and left.  Getting to her feet, Zatanna followed suit, but waited by the door rather than leave right away.  Dick turned off the holo-projector for Raquel and slipped it back into his utility belt.  Looking at Artemis, who was still hiding her face, he paused and hesitated.

“Artemis?  ...I want to know, if there’s anything we can do for you...hospital bills, supplies, arranging care...Bruce set has a fund set up for that.  And...I’ll be here if you need anything.”

“If you’re not running around the world on a wild goose chase.”  Artemis’s voice was muffled but still understandable and damningly accusing.  “I know how freaking obsessed you guys are, and I haven’t forgotten about Roy.  I would’ve thought you’d at least know better Dick.  I heard enough horror stories from my - from Cheshire.  Thank you.  Now good bye”

Dick rubbed the back of his neck thinking.

“The patient needs time to recover now,”  Dr. Light entered the room giving Dick a pointed look.  “Visiting hours are over Mr...Nightwing.  Please, for the health of Ms. Crock?”

He nodded and was awkwardly escorted out by an adamant Zee.  “Good night Artemis, call if you need anything!” she said somewhat nervously as they left.  Artemis waved a hand, head still pressed to her knees as they left.  As they left, M’gann’s voice intruded on Dick’s mind one more time.   _‘There was one thing that I think you really need to know Dick… while we were checking her story out, we found out Koriand’r knew about a planet of speedsters called Savoth.  Have you ever heard of “the Speed Force?”’_

**_The Light Ad Hoc Meeting Grounds (Somewhere in Tibet) - August 6, 2016 23:02 PDT_ **

“This one,” Klarion said offhandedly.  He sounded unfocused, almost bored, as he waved a hand.  A display descended from where he floated upside down in the air and Lex Luthor leaned in to look at the image.

Queen Bee scowled though.  “We are not a delivery service.  If you want a common swimsuit model Klarion, you are more than capable of doing that yourself!”

“She’s not a swimsuit model,” the Witch Boy firmly iterated, more distracted than annoyed.

Luthor turned to Queen Bee.  “Really now, what would Klarion want with a swimsuit model anyways?” clearly snubbing Queen Bee for her jibe.  “Afterall, if we needed one, we would have just asked you,” he smirked mockingly.

Queen Bee did not take kindly to the criticism and not at all to the insult.  “Watch it Luthor,” she cried very nearly jabbing Luthor in the eye as she waved a finger in his face.  “just because you’re Secretary for the UN now doesn’t give you command here!”

“Hmm, that’s not quite what Bialya implied when when it joined the council for the secretary election is it?” Luthor inspected and buffed his nails casually on the collar of his immaculate suit.

“Why you - !”

“Queen Bee!” he interjected with a firm mix of condescending authority and patrician scorn, “You may want to watch your words.”  Smoothly, Luthor’s tone leveled out to one of rehearsed neutrality.  “After all, with the old order jailed or scattered by that rabble of adolescents and Ra’s al Ghul and his League of Shadows acting out of turn, Lex Corp’s resources and assets are more necessary than ever.”  

“Funny how that happened, isn’t it? You with all that power and the rest of us out of the way,” Queen Bee’s voice was steady and she almost sounded bored.  But her eyes, they were were alight with a spite bordering on hate.

“Such wild fantasies dear, you shouldn’t overdo yourself lest you need a visit to the doctor…”

“Is that a threat?” Queen Bee sniffed, looking down her nose at Luthor like he was...well a bee.

Luthor barked out a harsh laugh.  “Why, it’s common sense dear.  Something I am starting to believe you were never in excess of,” he looked down his nose in turn at the scarlet-faced monarch in turn.

“Hello?  Target, needed.  Not.  Here,” Klarion scathingly called, at last paying attention to matters at hand rather than the arcane projections and monitor displays before him.

“Where will she be?”  Luthor fairly oozed polished charm as turned his back on Queen Bee without hesitation to give Klarion his undivided attention.  Queen Bee stamped and masked her aborted instinct to make a rude gesture by crossing her arms.

“Star Labs in Taos,” Klarion answered shortly.

“Then our agents will be ready, won’t they Queen Bee?”

He didn’t look to acknowledge Queen Bee ducking a fragile nod so the monarch spun on her heel and stormed out.  Luthor continued to tilt his head observantly at the green-eyed girl on the screen like she held all the answers they needed.  “After all, our Light must rival the stars.” His eyes flickered to his left.  “Isn’t that right, Brother?”

The silent fourth in the room had the timing of an actor.  “Indeed Mr. Luthor.  Indeed,” he said with cruel humor before bursting out into cackling laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this was late. And short. It seemed unnecessary to stretch these scenes out since the next bit of exposition is my chance to use author's prerogative and establish a system of magic. Sorta.
> 
> No update this coming week, I'm going to be in Taiwan until the 31st. Go read Evocations: Static if you want more of my YJ shenanigans. I'll be introducing a villain for Summonings in there in chapter 4 soon enough. Plug plug.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zatanna takes Dick back to Magic 101...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Young Justice, Teen Titans, Static Shock, and others works whose characters and stories are used and referenced in this fic are not my property. The convoluted plot is though. :3

**_Watchtower - August 6, 2016 23:22 PDT_ **

“Latte,” Zatanna decided.  She pressed the button and waited for the machine to fill her cup.  She looked at Dick, about to ask him if he wanted anything.  Her friend still sat at the seat in the lounge, staring at his clasped hands between spread legs, slouching again.  Zatanna thought better of it and looked back at the machine.

Zatanna set a styrofoam cup on the coffee table in front of Dick.  “Coffee.  It’s black.  No cream, no sugar.”  He couldn’t refuse to drink it if she already got it for him.  

“Yeah, that’s what it means,” Dick said absently.  He didn’t reach for the coffee.  So Zatanna spent the next five minutes blowing on her hot latte and taking careful sips of the scalding liquid as she watched her friend watch his hands.  At last she set down her latte and picked up the coffee she got for him.

 _“Ekam ti dloc.”_  The cup glowed and Dick looked at her, puzzling out the spell.  Before he worked it out, Zatanna tossed the ice-cold coffee into his face.

 **“E-ea-yargh!”** Nightwing uncharacteristically screeched as Zatanna hummed to herself and stepped back to the coffee machine.  “What the hell Zee?” he snapped, looking for something to wipe the liquid off his suit.  Zatanna wasn’t worried.  If Dick didn’t have the characteristic Bat-family-paranoia foresight to make his suit and utility belt water-proof, she would eat her tights.  On stage.

She pressed a fresh cup of hot coffee into a spluttering Dick’s hand and waggled her fingers.  The wet spots instantly started to steam.  After years of practice, she could at least use clothing spells without much effort.  It saved so much on cleaning and potential wardrobe replacements.  Silk was expensive to replace after raiding a super villain's hideout du jour.  Nightwing patiently waited for the steam rising from his suit and the chair to dissipate before speaking again.  “You couldn’t get rid of the stains?”  He glared at a big splotch near his crotch.

Zatanna rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers to remove the stains.  “Now will you stop moping?”

He fiddled with the cup instead of meeting her eyes.  “Tell me about the magic training.”

“I’m not going to let this go,” she warned, plopping down in the seat across from Dick.   _‘At least he’s talking again.’_  Dick didn’t ask a lot, as she learned over the years, but when he did ask it was always something big from Artemis’s glamour charm to tracking down traces of Wally even Batman couldn’t find.  One of his more unusual requests was to never let him become like Batman.  It was one of the few that she struggled to fulfill and she was always pleased with herself when she could tear Dick from his nest of shadows and show him that life was as much joy and senselessness as much as pain and calculation.  “Hoping to pick off where you gave up before?”

“Hey!  I didn’t give up, I just ....took a break to pursue other studies.”  Then Nightwing smirked.  “And I had a poor teacher.”

“ _I_ had a poor student,” Zatanna smirked right back, willing to trade verbal blows and duke it out with Dick like the best of them.  “He didn’t even pay.  I taught for free, being of a generous and charitable soul,” she laid it on thick with an elegant and well-rehearsed toss of her hair that made Dick chuckle.

“Ok, in all seriousness - details.”

Zatanna’s face grew a bit pensive.  “Queen Mera and I are thinking of rites and rituals to awaken the more latent magical powers within normal humans so you guys can invoke it like _homo magi_.  She and Dr. Fate were researching methods before Klarion and Fate’s vanishing act.”

“Is that possible?”

She cupped her chin.  “In theory.  You know already that magic is  just another form of energy that’s more powerful and adaptable to purpose than what is scientifically possible because it's so tied to our mental will and expression.  Even Diana thinks its possible and asked the Themyscirans to back us up.”

“So how would you do it?”

Zatanna waved that issue off.  “The problem isn’t how, but where would we get the energy to do so.  We have the rites, the materials, and auspicious times to do this down.  The problem is that unlocking that potential with our means would require a lot of a specific magical energy.  One that we don’t have access to now that Fate is gone...”

“Pardon?”

Zatanna crossed her arms.  “Tell me you didn’t forget the lessons that quickly.  Its the fundamental basics.”

“Enlighten us,” a new and brusque voice said.  Dinah and Batman took the seats next to Zatanna and Dick respectively as M’gann, Connor, and Kaldur came over with more drinks.

“Nightwing may know, but not the rest of us.  I’ve read the details, but would have a more...personal explanation,” Batman continued.  He kept his cowl on and continued using code names as he accepted a coffee - also black - from the equally expressionless Connor.  Maybe Connor was still a bit intimidated.  Just because more time had passed and they worked with Dick’s hard-edged mentor more didn’t mean interacting with him was any easier.  In fact, it was intimidating the more they realized what Batman could do to turn their worlds upside down and how little they knew of how he could do so.  Connor was fearless, but he wasn’t stupid.

“I’m curious too, we have a lot of unusual phenomena on Mars, but nothing of the occult like on Earth,”  M’gann threw out that tidbit of Martian life with earnest curiosity as she sipped her herbal tea appreciatively.  “I never really picked your mind when you were using your magic.  But, I always wanted to know.”  Her bringing up her powers reminded Zatanna,  After the debacle with B’arzz and getting back together with Connor, M’gann had been much more careful of how and when she employed her psychic abilities.  It was at the point of being hesitant to without explicit and repeated prompting when she was using her powers on friendlies and civs - like she was newly Miss Martian again and starting fresh on Earth.

“Well...ok.  You know of the distinction between _homo sapiens_ and _homo magi_ right?”

“Only in the sort of biological sense in that one can use magic and the other can’t right?”

“Er, sort of in a basic way,” Zatanna generously agreed.  “But that isn’t to say humans aren’t capable.  How do you think Billy uses his powers to become Captain Marvel?”

“That’s magic?” asked Connor, looking rather bewildered.  “I always thought he was joking…It’s a little hard to believe.”

Zatanna grinned.  “This from the guy that calls some of New Genesis’s advanced tech “Sphere”?”  Connor shot her a humoring grin and Kaldur smiled faintly, but a somewhat impatient cough from Batman brought Zatanna back to the topic.

“Long story short, a wizard imbued certain humans with the ability to better access magic and sorcery.  These people became the historical ancestors of all _homo magi_ on Earth right now except for tribal and deified magic like the kind the Themyscirans and Atlanteans use.  They aren’t the only ones though, there are cabals and powers scattered throughout the world still.  In any case, normal people can use magic too, it just takes more time and training.  …A lot more these days.”

“So what is this about the ritual?”  Dinah asked.

“...Queen Mera and Atlantis’s Academy of Sorcery is the best institution in the world to teach the Team and its recruits to use magic.  Most other magical education facilities are _homo magi_ only.  Otherwise I might recommend a castle in northern England that…”

“Stick to the topic,” Batman warned.

Zatanna resisted the urge to roll her eyes and more easily the urge to turn Batman’s costume a nice, cheery pink and see what he’d do about it.  She was a Justice Leaguer and Nightwing was here so Batman couldn’t kill her outright…but...it was Batman.

“Queen Mera has suggested the use of Atlantean tattoos to help with the training,”  Kaldur smoothly continued for her.  “I agree.”  

“As do I,”  Zatanna admitted.

“Could you explain, for the rest of us?” Dinah asked quite reasonably as Zatanna took another sip.  

“Without the ritual Dr. Fate had in mind the Team’s training would rely on limiting ourselves. We would be too tied to insecure locations with magical ley lines or rely on certain magical objects which are easy to overcome or can be warded against,” Kaldur answered for Zatanna.

“I especially feel the latter are a crutch in the long run,” the magician commented lightly.

“Why not the tattoos in the first place?  What is so important about the ritual?”  Dinah asked, wanting to weigh their options.

“The tattoos aren’t foolproof.  They are also wardable,” Zatanna explained.  “Also if they are damaged or obstructed, its hard for trainees to use their magic without putting themselves at risk like a _homo magi_ can.”

“What kind of risk?” M’gann wondered.

Zatanna was rather unsurprised when Batman answered for her.  “Madness, blood-spilling, curses, an attraction for demons and ghosts...just to name a few,” the cowled hero rattled off the consequences as systematically and impassionately as if he were reading off a grocery list instead of possible futures for their friends on the Team.

“All of those?” M’gann looked mortified as her eyes flit towards Zatanna with newfound respect and concern.

The magician looked down at her half-drunk latte.  “It depends on the person, the type of spell and magic that was used, and the severity of the power the spell demanded.  If the tattoo is undamaged, it’s really quite stable.  But...”

“The tattoo has a limit as to what it can channel right?” Dick asked.  Kaldur nodded.  “Kaldur’s already told me a bit about the magics he can use.  He said that with enough training and practice, you can ditch the tattoos and use magic freely like Zee here.”  Again the Atlantean nodded confirmation.  “But he said...it could take years.”

“Aqua -” Batman uncharacteristically fumbled a bit and everyone stared.  Like everyone, he was trying to adjust for Kaldur’s transition from Aqualad to Black Manta Field Commander back to hero.  Like how Artemis was off-limits now, Aqualad was no longer appropriate in any sense.   Still, Kaldur had yet to decide on what exactly he wanted to be called yet.  Kaldur did look uncommonly amused, and somewhat pleased at himself that he managed to upset Batman, even over something so slight.  With a sigh the cowled man continued, “Kaldur’ahm may yet become a deft sorcerer, but may never reach the abilities of Tempest even as Tempest is now.  The ritual with Fate would have made that possible within a year and shaved off valuable time investments for the team by decades even.  But Queen Mera insists on saying that the Academy’s pupils are not all cut out for League work in place of the Team.  I have to agree.” He set his coffee - untouched - on the table as he sat back in his seat with meticulous posture.

“Not to mention how damaging it would be for Atlantis.  If the League takes the cream of the crop of its mages who would maintain Atlantean society as we know it today?” Zatanna mused.  “Atlantis really is the best place for this - it’s an open and globally recognized society that embraces magic in daily life and throughout.  I think the more creative members of the team would find better ways to adapt magic into their routines looking at magic that way than in stuffy and traditional-minded _homo magi_ schools elsewhere.  Honestly, some of the places I’ve seen are really so old fashioned - they wouldn’t let you light a candlestick with magic without a lecture homaging the importance of magic and reserving magical strength for the really ‘important things.’”  She air-quoted the last bit, clearly having been chafed the wrong way by some of her _homo magi_ colleagues.

“Now that just sounds like whining,” chuckled Dick.  Zatanna sent a him a dirty look that promised swift, annoying vengeance in his near future.

M’gann still had some questions though, “You mentioned a specific magical energy earlier?  Something for the ritual and the basic fundamentals?”

Dick beat Zatanna to the explanation which she didn’t complain about.  It gave her time to finish her latte before it got too cold and Kaldur was able to fill in a few crucial details that Dick’s informal tutorials with her didn’t cover.  As it was, she made a face at her lukewarm latte as Dick launched into a surprisingly on-the-dot recollection of what Zatanna had told him about the schools of magic.  He recounted about the primal elemental magics controlling the forces of nature in fire, water, wind, air, and earth.  He obliged the grains of truth in old religious texts of worlds beyond and the holy, sacred, or sacrosanct forces that once walked the Earth with humans.  He distinguished between manipulating darkness and necromancy as opposed to the evil natures of hexes and curses.  He remembered the tales of craft mages and the great forces that went into creating legendary weapons like Diana’s sword, lasso, and enchanted armor.  He did not forget about the powerful magics of gatherings of people and their lives found in the magic of cities and the esoteric power of the human mind.  And he, of course, homaged the sleight of hand and illusory showmanship that were the core of magics like Zatanna’s craft.

Batman looked grumpy as Dick finished.  Zatanna couldn’t figure out if that was because Dick’s explanation took so long yet was brutally efficient in its details or if Dick had spent so much time researching a field so many in his world dismissed as fantasy.  M’gann and Connor were suitably impressed while Dinah looked her way with thoughts clearly racing in her head.

“Zatanna, if all this is true, why don’t we have more magicians on the League?”

Zatanna met the older woman’s eyes squarely.  “Can you imagine if there were?  If people knew angels existed, that demons wander among us, unkillable and only banishable for a short while before they come back for more victims?  That the monsters in the fairy tales are all too real?”

“Meaning?”

“These monsters cause enough trouble for the magical community as is.  Can you imagine the kind of fear mongering the public would have to worry about magical threats?  Look at the kind of license G. Gordon already has with aliens!” She couldn’t help waving her hand in frustration thinking of the blowhard.  “Keeping things on the down low is the safest bet for everyone concerned.”  Zatanna blew a loose hair out of her face and avoided meeting Diana’s eyes.   “That was what my father thought and I agree.”

Diana looked down at her hands and folded them in her lap.  “I see…Forgive me, I should’ve paid more attention to Giovanni on this beforehand.  But surely there are other ways to bring other magical beings to the Team that wouldn’t lead to such a panic?”

Zatanna sighed and looked down.  “History remembers fantastic tales of dragons and knights, but what about the rest of the world?  The _homo magi_ conception of magic is heavily based on the practices of old enclaves in Europe that specialized in deception and warfare.  They helped ruin the enclaves in the rest of the world during the time when European countries established colonies in the countries they visited.  That led to witch hunts and _homo magi_ going underground.  Mages from Europe were so focused on blasting each other to bits they forgot how to love the world around them,”  Zatanna bit her lip as everyone but Dick stared at her.  Dick slid his hand across the table to squeeze hers comfortingly.  He knew the reason why this upset her so, but she shouldn’t hold it against the others.  If anything it was a sign that the work in the magical world was successful in protecting it from the outside world the others lived in.  She continued with a weary sigh. “Why do you think Blackbriar Thorn is aligned with Klarion?”

“Blackbriar?” asked Connor.

“A magic-user that you’ve faced a couple times I think.  Or the Team has at least.  He was one of the four magic-users helping Klarion during the spell that split dimensions for children and for adults,” Batman answered, a disapproving note in voice.  

“A druid,” corrected Zatanna.  “He belonged to a circle of mages who stewarded nature in Scotland.  When the _homo magi_ began their secret wars, his cabal was massacred and their lore of life, healing, and growth was lost with his companions.  The _homo magi_ waged their own wars that massacred mages among the native peoples throughout the world during the time of European colonies.  The ways of old magic were desecrated and tossed aside for the magic that you see today.  It’s why you didn’t know about them Dinah.  And why even Themyscira still keeps to itself.  Even if they could help us, they have no reason to.  Why stick your neck out and risk generations of passing magical legacies down your family when there’s superheros already solving the problems in the public eye?  It’s enough trouble keeping magical problems under wraps.  Just because the world accepts Atlantis and its magics today doesn’t mean it’ll always be so understanding.  Atlantis already has a checkered history with the magicians within its own borders, never mind the rest of the world...Most _homo magi_ now are more of a mind with Klarion,” she explained somberly.  “So many lines and families of _homo magi_ have been lost to the infighting, the trauma lingers and it’s a curse in its own way...  It’s getting harder and harder to explain to the mages I try to help throughout the world why the League is a good thing when they protect the world that took so much from them and left them so little.”

“...I had no idea…,” M’gann sighed.  To her magic was a thing of mystery, of wonder and adventure like in the stories Gar had gotten her interested in as of late.  To learn that there was another world’s worth of historical loss and fear was a rude wake-up-call to reality she would rather have gone without.  It was too much like being a White Martian on Mars again.  But Zatanna couldn’t apparently and M’gann would not hide from that either.  Connor looked just as surprised.  A clone upbringing by Lex Luthor and a classic American high school education apparently didn’t cover the histories of massacred natives that well.  Who knew?

“But let’s not forget that those same magics have been causing us trouble throughout the last century with magic relics and tools getting out of hand and being used to hurt people,” Batman said stiffly.

Zatanna’s eyes flashed.  “That also means remembering the people who disturbed those relics and otherworldly beings ignored the native warnings and lore that forbade them.  More than one was dismissed them as ‘primitive superstitions.’”  The way she said that made it sound like she was quoting someone condescendingly arrogant in their opinion.  On a personally familiar level.  Batman didn’t look away from Zatanna’s challenging glare, but he didn’t contest what she said either.

“Zatanna?” interjected Dinah, trying to diffuse the awkwardly tense situation as best as she was able.  “What magics did you mean?  For the ritual.  You still haven’t explained properly”

Zatanna shot Bruce one last evil eye and then answered Dinah. “I belong to the illusory and manifestation school of magic - the modern all-around branch of magic.  It’s useful for quick fixes and tying up loose ends for the League.  And earning a paycheck,” she added cheekily.  “But the ritual Mera and Nabu were planning for mimics the way _homo magi_ bloodlines were first established, on an individual level.  It was a ritual relying on a power as old as the dominions of Order and Chaos to power its spells.  Now that Fate’s gone, we tried adapting the spell to the means we have available.  But...”

“It’s not working?” Dick prodded trying to keep Batman and Zatanna from getting into an argument by keeping the former from having a chance to talk and the latter busy lecturing.

“No.  Atlantean magic is old and its traditions go back a long time,” Kaldur answered.  Again Zatanna was happy to defer to someone else.  Lecturing was something Zatanna found herself doing a lot these days.  Lecturing the League on what she could do, but couldn’t do like Fate.  Lecturing the Team on the fact magic existed.  At this point it was almost second nature but she didn’t normally have as captive an audience as she did now.  “Most now practice a modernized form that Queen Mera can’t adapt to the ritual.”

“Only a few things like the rituals regarding the crowning of the King and older sacred festivals might work as well as Fate’s power,” Zatanna recalled.  “The festivals option would take a while to do, but Mera plans on testing it on the next one.  This only to empower one person at a time  though.  As for the alternative, I doubt Aquaman would appreciated being deposed of repeatedly for the other way.  The only other ways would take too much magic to force the ritual to work.”

“Not to mention such activity would draw Black Manta or Klarion’s attention…” pointed out Dinah.  Everyone but for Batman shifted a bit, and carefully avoided looking towards Kaldur as she mentioned that.  After Kaldur’s betrayal, it was hard to figure out how Black Manta might take any hint of the Team’s involvement in his waters now that he escaped League custody.  No one imagined him to be the type to roll out the red carpet with flowers and chocolates for them though.

“Is there a different type of magic?  You make it sound like a battery.  If one doesn’t work, you try others until you find one that does,”  Connor suddenly spoke up.

“That’s what we’re trying to do Connor,” Zatanna sighed.  Exhaustion began to swamp her.  It had been a long day and, reaching midnight, Zatanna was feeling every moment of it add up on her consciousness.  She looked at the others.  Dick was toying with his cup again, clearly deep in thought over something.  Batman, Dinah, Kaldur, and M’gann seemed to be following her, but the women looked as weary as she felt.  Connor was fiercely sharp in many ways, but with all the information they were dumping on everyone on top of Artemis’s big news, it was a wonder none of them were running circles around the room and pulling their hair out by the roots.

Zatanna was mostly successful smothering the sudden, insane urge to giggle at that image.

“We should adjourn for the night.  There’s enough on everyone’s plates here to consider before we continue this discussion,” Batman rose and left without a backwards glance at the others.

Zatanna waited until she was sure the caped crusader was gone.  “He’s not going to be waiting for me in a dark alley sometime soon is he Dick?”

“If that’s your way of asking if he’s mad, then I’d have to say maybe not an alley per se....”  Zatanna folded her arms.  “He’s not mad Zee, but he’s going to need some time to process all of this.  It’s not like he’s had time to study the anthropology of the mystic arts before.”

“Well I’m of a mind to get some rest, I’ve got an early shift on the Tower tomorrow,” Dinah yawned enormously and, with a wave, followed Batman’s exit - thus leaving the remnants of the original Team alone with their thoughts.

“What do you guys think Artemis will do?” M’gann queried, abandoning her tea to trace a finger on her armrest aimlessly.

“She’ll keep Wally’s child,” Connor answered with his earnest conviction as always.

“And what of Tigress?” Kaldur asked, the consummate leader.  “What of our roles on the Team if we rotate Tigress out immediately?  The Team will want answers and if they are anything like us.”

“And they are,” Dick chuckled, voice low.

Kaldur nodded.  “They will stir up trouble trying to figure it out,” he pointed out.  “She is popular, loved, and a well-respected member of the Team.”

Dick chimed in.  “Pulling Tigress also puts her in the spotlight for our critics,” he pointed out.  “Can you imagine what G. Gordon would say?  He already ran a program on Tigress’s ‘miraculous’ recruitment and how she’ll turn on the public like she did Black Manta, ” .

“We are intimately aware of that Dick,” Kaldur said dryly.  The other half of the program on Tigress was on him and featured how he killed Artemis who conveniently appeared and disappeared alternatively with Tigress.  Gorden’s supporters were demanding answers and even if they didn’t bear the same ill-will, the public at large was curious.  The BBC had already done a special gossiping about Artemis to explain her sudden reappearance in Paris with Kid Flash and then disappearance since.  It involved being the Black Canary’s illegitimate time-traveling child by Green Arrow and being cloned in the future and returning to help Kid Flash, flying full in the face of the facts and timing of Artemis’s appearance over the years.  Kaldur and Dick quietly agreed not to the bring the program to Artemis’s attention.

“We can’t pull her from the team can we?” M’gann realized running her hands through her hair in exasperation.

“No, but we have a way to keep Tigress from the public eye,” Zatanna calmly reminded them.  When they looked to her for an answer she raised an eyebrow amusedly.  “The magic exchange program.  The press works differently in Atlantis so from there we can control what goes out to the public.  Not to mention the Academy of Sorcery is treated as a subsidiary of the Atlantean Throne.”

“And any breaches in conduct to it and its privacy is legally punishable.  The UN has agreed to stringent conditions of sovereignty in recognition of His Highness’s office for the addition of Atlantis to the UN.” Kaldur smiled mirthfully seeing where she was going.

“We can keep Gordon from spinning tales and make sure Tigress stays out of the limelight as much as possible by doing work for the Atlantean throne.  Clever.  When did you start studying politics and media Zee?” Dick was smirking widely, hands behind his head as he contemplated all the possible ways the scenario could adapt to their situation.

“Hmm...can’t say,” she said, falsely meek.  “Gotta plan for my shows on the side somehow.”  Her voice lilted as she continued, “ _Somebody_ tried to teach me, but he was a terrible teacher.”  She said, catching his eye with a tiny smirk of her own.

M’gann watched them fascinated, but it was Connor who spoke up sarcastically.  “When are you two getting back together?”  

Both jumped and threw themselves apart from each other. Connor looked highly skeptical so Dick was pretty sure one or another he was in on Dick’s feelings for Wally.  Zee didn’t know they knew though.  “So,” Dick suavely tried to recover, glaring at M’gann who contented herself with a bashful tilt of her head, “Another glamour to hide Artemis’s pregnancy?”

“I’ll have it ready by the end of the week,” Zatanna promised, just a hair too quick and eager to say so.  They both stood and left the room quickly, talking tech and sorcery shop in carefully even voices.  So M’gann and Connor looked to Kaldur.

The Atlantean shrugged.  “They seem like a good match in the long run.  Give them time.”  Apparently Connor’s sarcasm flew right over the more sober-minded man’s head. The Atlantean also didn’t seem caught up on the Team gossip to know about Dick’s not-so-secret fling with Babs while he was gone either.

 _‘He has no idea does he?’_ Connor thought to M’gann.

 _‘Nope’_ she answered with a somewhat bemused mental sigh and squeezed Connor’s hand fondly.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait. Lot of changes at work lately. This one is a doozy to read, but think I feel like both DC and Marvel make a habit to keep magic as vague as possible for plot shenanigans. While I like plot shenanigans too, I need a certain sense to be willing to share my headcanons with you all.
> 
> Hopefully this also fleshes out my idea of Zatanna for you all.
> 
> Chapter 4 of Evocation: Static is also up now


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the Tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Young Justice, Teen Titans, Static Shock, and others works whose characters and stories are used and referenced in this fic are not my property. The convoluted plot is though. :3

_**Tower construction zone – Jump City - August 7, 2016 11:13 PDT** _

“So when are we going to meet the new girl?”

Tim managed to ignore Garfield’s latest repetition of the same question he had been repeating the last few hours.  Bart was just as excited as he literally bounced around off the walls.  Carr had his hands full trying to keep the two still enough to tutor them on today’s lesson and it was starting to show.

“I don’t know Garfield,” Carr said, his voice caught somewhere between singsong hysteria and blowing his lid.  “Can we at least finish the lesson first?”

“Aw, but teach.  Why bother with the lesson?  We’re going to the real deal!”  Bart darted up with hand held high so that Gar could high-five it, but by the time Carter thought of a rebuttal, Bart was already gone again. The echoes of his yell lingered though: _“Indiaaa!!!”_  Gar took advantage and cut off Carter’s reply.

“Eagerly noted Bart.  Besides teach, its _Sunday!_  Rob doesn’t have school, why should I?”

“Robin.  Help,” Carr begged in a hollow croak.

Tim took the boxes that a floating Cass handed him and, more eagerly, accepted the peck on the lips she gave him before she headed back for the zeta tubes.  “I don’t think I’m qualified teach,” he flashed a guilty grin at the distraught tutor.  “But I’ve got an idea.  Hoy, Blue!”

“In a moment Rob, I - no….no - NO!  Batman’s still mad at me for the last time you went and magnetized the equipment, _hombre_.”  Jaime’s voice descended to an indistinct muttering match with  Khaji Da.

“Oh, crash!  Is Blue coming with us?”  Bart darted in, his harms a blur as he burned off his excitement.  Tim half expected him to take off into the air - he looked so much like a hummingbird as he gesticulated.

“Maybe, maybe not.  Whether I put in a good word with Nightwing depends on what Carr says though,” Tim smirked as he left the room.

The door slid shut behind him on the staging ground where Carr had set up his temporary classroom.  It wasn’t the best place, but nothing else was unpacked yet and the shipping crates were serviceable desks and chairs.  Construction had been a stuttering sort of thing.  The League couldn't fall back on even League-backed corporations like Wayne Enterprises after all the complicated red tape and new legal restrictions from Luthor’s UN.  With the influx of new faces, manpower was split breaking in the recruits and working in bonding with both the new people and the Team on top of personal routines.  Then there was bringing the newbies up to speed on classified information and identities that were helpful to the League but still well out of public knowledge.  The Team had been forced to sit through no less than six of those.  The Team was of a mind that they were all redundant considering Bruce fostered a healthy understanding of information networks among his proteges - and by extension the Team.  At the very least it was amusing watching Tim and Babs banter about the orientations.  Tim felt the League’s info was too dignified and too vital be considered gossip.  Barbara thought he was being pretentious again.

Factoring in the usual League duties and patrols meant that the League was a mess.  Building a new secure base for the Team off the coast of Jump City in California was simply too much and the Team had to accept some caveats for building their new home - especially amid the strain on the superhero community during the most ambitious League expansion yet.  Namely, that their mentors wouldn’t permit much work this far underground unsupervised.   It was a wonder that Black Canary wasn’t baying at the moon - although Tim wondered if a rooster analogy was more befitting for Canary?  She was practically buried in paperwork and complaints around the clock and feeling the long hours at her desk whenever she dropped by on the Team.  Tim spared a moment of mourning for the loss of their den mother having to give up her duties with them to address the League at large.  Thank goodness their new den mother was at least _interesting_ Tim supposed as he made his managing to the gym this time without getting lost in the massive complex.

The sound of Tim entering caught their den mother’s attention, if only for a moment.  “That goes over there poozer.”

Tim nodded a bit hesitantly to the massive Bolovaxian who had Mal firmly pinned to the ground with one foot on the young man’s chest.  Even using both his hands, Mal couldn’t get the black-booted foot to budge.  Kilowog was too strong, even when fending off Connor.  Connor gave up on his boxing-styled flurry of fists and swept out with a solid (only solid to a Bolovaxian) sweep kick that knocked the Green Lantern off Mal and to the left.  However, years of honing reflexes and amazing muscle control allowed the Lantern to twist his fall into a flare as agile as a top-tier break dancer and kick Connor in the jaw with the very leg the young man attacked just a moment ago.  He finished the motion with a chair-flare like maneuver that landed him on his feet in time to lash out in a back kick. _That_ stopped Kaldur cold in his attempt at a charge and back into the wall Kilowog had just knocked him into a short while before Tim entered.  Satisfied, Kilowog placed the booted foot back onto a stunned Mal’s chest with surprising gentleness before firmly shoving his victim back down against the floor.

Kilowog was visiting the Earth for a while to mourn Wally with his fellow Lantern from Coast City and the Flash.  Wally had been one of his fondest human acquaintances after he endeared himself to Kilowog in his earlier Kid Flash days.  Hearing of the League’s trials, and with Earth entering the limelight in cultures across galaxies, he volunteered to help bring the new Leaguers in shape.  The founders politely declined hoping to avoid a potential political fiasco after hearing Hal’s stories of his strict and demanding, if effective, training regimen.  Kilowog was just as happy to accept Batman’s alternative proposal working with the Team though.  Tim was still trying to figure out where he stood on the subject.  True, the Team was learning a lot and bonding well working overtime.  It was also gripping as they gleaned what they could from Kilowog’s frighteningly expansive knowledge of alien life and all the ways it could tear soft, fleshy Earthlings to bits.   On the other hand, that knowledge made the Bolovaxian seem every bit as imposing to deal with as Batman.  And unlike the Batman, Kilowog had a Lantern ring and a wicked sense of humor.

“Not every mission your Team goes on will be a stealth and reconnaissance mission,” Kilowog calmly reminded them.  “You’re strong, but you can be stronger.”  It had been a long time since Tim had seen Connor growl, but growl the half-Kryptonian did as he spun around and tried to deliver a round house punch.  Kilowog just barely shimmied left of the blow and, with an open palm to the chest, simply shoved Connor off balance.  “You’re angry.  Good, but don’t react - "

Connor whirled on the ball of his right foot and lashed out with his left leg kicking Kilowog squarely in the knee.  Kilowog crumpled to the ground, but Tim didn’t believe the Lantern was seriously injured - Kryptonian strength or no.  His last war story had been about getting chewed up and spit out by a monster that attacked Earth space and threw Superman into the moon so hard it left a crack the size of the Grand Canyon.

“I know...channel that anger.”  Connor managed to not growl out and restrain his impatience enough to speak normally.  “Black Canary taught me that a long time ago.”

“Poozer got me,” Kilowog grinned abashedly.  “I gotta give it up to Canary.”

If it could be said that Connor made a mistake during the training, it was that he turned on Kilowog before the Lantern declared the session was over to check on Mal.  Kilowog suddenly flipped up into the air and delivered a two-legged flying kick that caught Connor square in the back.  The force behind the blow knocked him and Mal into a barely recovered Kaldur like marbles.  Thankfully, the three only bounced off the cushioning - which Hal was adamant about installing on the walls before Kilowog arrived - and ended up in a groaning heap.  Kilowog dusted his hands off.  “I’m not gonna say anything else.  You poozers should be able to figure out the moral of the story with that.”

He lifted the leg that Connor kicked to rotate it, testing it when he noticed Tim still watching after dropping off most of his burden.  “Wanna go, birdy boy?” the porcine face grinned as he beckoned with one finger. Tim darted out the door in a flash of red and black leaving the Lantern alone with his charges.  “ _Pffft_...you’re no fun.  Oi!  Up and at em kids.  I still got you for an hour or so and we’re going to make the most of it!”  Kilowog eagerly punched his fist into an open palm as he worked out some kinks in necks.  His voice was just a little too optimistic for comfort to the three young men struggling to untangle themselves from each other.

The “Tower” was a bit of a misnomer.  Still haunted by the train-for-failure exercise from the original Team’s glory days, Nightwing proposed an underground facility that could pull triple time as an HQ for the Team, backup for the Watchtower, and emergency shelter in the case of a real life version of the training simulation.  It was reasonable, but when Nightwing suggested an underground facility in the Ring of Fire area it had raised more than a few brows from the League.  That was, until Kaldur explained that there was a rich deposit of the element xenothium in a nearby destroyed Atlantean colony that should be secured.  Black Manta knew about it, and the League came across the remnants of a mining op while scouting the area.  They concurred that the location had to be secured somehow to keep the xenothium from its highly dangerous applications.

Aboveground entrances were to be discretely constructed in reverse from the main facility which was constructed with Thangarian Nth Metal at no small expense.  Starting with the staging grounds and the zeta tubes, the facility was being excavated at the far end of California beach shelf to grow up and down within a  sheer cliff face they found.  This would support a deep-pressure training environment for the Team.  Batman seemed to be taking it upon himself to ensure that the Team’s newest location would be secure, impregnable, and so costly that the Team, Nightwing and Kaldur not least of all, would barely think of blowing it up even in the most dire of circumstances.

While Kaldur, Connor, and Mal were being knocked into taffy in training, Nightwing was working with Babs, M’gann, and Karen to set up the sensitive communications equipment in the control center.  Tim popped in with his last parcel and dropped it off by Nightwing as the former Robin was waist deep working on wiring inside a console.

Tim whistled appreciatively.  “Sweet digs,” he said looking at the communications, strategic, and logistical equipment and arrays throughout the room.  It was every bit as sophisticated as the technology on the Watchtower.  In fact, it was pretty much a match for the upgrades the League was in the middle of installing now.

“Hey Rob!” M’gann acknowledged as she floated up from the computer core she was installing underneath the floor.

“Hey MM, how many of these toys are mine?” he wondered checking what looked to be a molecular analysis unit.

“I called dibs on that!” Babs yelled, hidden within a massive coil of wires.  She sounded a bit breathless, but ecstatic.  With all this equipment, Babs was over the moon.  Helping install it so she could mod things to her specifications was a chance she all but locked herself in the room to be a part of.

“What?  The satellite imaging?” It was on the far side of the room and Tim thought it only fair he got to play with some of the toys himself.

“No.  That’s on the other side of the room.” Bab’s voice dripped innocent sweetness and indulgence in Tim’s playful jab.  “I was referring to the molecular analysis unit to your right, the forensics unit we’re moving to the lab on your left, and the cell culturing unit behind you.  Actually scratch that, everything for the lab is mine.”

Tim chuckled weakly as he finally noticed Bab’s purple bat insignia already stickered on each of the machines around him - exactly as she said they were arranged.  Then he jumped as a shape suddenly appeared in the air to his right.  He wouldn’t put it past Babs to have snuck away to prank him or Dick or just keep them on their toes.  Ventilation shafts big enough for a person in the command center were something Batman ruled to be against “security regulations,” but Babs was sure to sneak in some anyways.

Despite that, it wasn’t Babs who caught him off guard, but Karen who had been working in the mainframe in miniature.  “Hey, I thought the molecular analyzer was going in my part of the lab!”

“Just staking out our territory.” Bab’s hand stuck out of the wire coil to wave reassuringly at Karen.  Nonetheless, the other girl, like Tim, must’ve caught the all-too-innocent tone in Bab’s voice because she crossed her arms and ‘hmmed’ suspiciously.

“Ok, that should work now,” Dick heaved himself out of the innards of the counsel and replacing the sweat he wiped away on his forehead with smudged grease.  “Give it a go Babs.”

“And...testing. Testing.”  Babs voice echoed throughout the complex now that the speaker system was online.  A bit rudimentary compared to the League’s high tech comm systems they also had access to, but Dick wanted every precaution in place.  Tim watched his older “brother” with a wary eye.  He agreed with Babs that the about-face from planning to leave the Team and then coming back today after barely a month was too sudden and unlike Dick’s solitary brooding over the last few weeks.  Something was off or he had changed his mind in a hurry.  Even though he was glad Dick was with them again, fresh after Artemis’s “death” and Kaldur’s “betrayal” Tim suspected more secrets under the polished and natural charm.  Time would tell, so for now Tim kept his thoughts close to his chest and ducked back to the tubes get the parts M’gann needed for the computer core.

~*~

Dick was about to lug a display to Karen’s lab when Tim’s voice crackled to life in his com.  Nightwing put the burden down as quickly and gently as he could manage and tapped his comm.  “Come again Robin?”

_\- “There’s someone here you should meet.  Like, now Nightwing.” -_

Dick could hear Babs setting her work aside and getting up.

 _\-  “If Tim’s using the private channel, I got to see who this person is,” -_ Bab’s voice was just barely caught by her comm as she suddenly jumped straight up and disappeared into the ceiling. Vent system.  Right.  Dick was going to bug the hell out of that and that bug the bugs if he could figure out a way - he still remembered Cadmus’s piss-poor ventilation security after all.  Nonetheless, Dick set that thought aside and pondered something else. Bab’s hadn’t mentioned it, but Tim sounded uncommonly eager and cautious.

With all that was going on lately, Tim was taking a quieter approach to being Robin than Dick or Jason had.  Maybe it was the way everyone seemed to be looking to the Bat family to lead between Dick’s own experience and Bab’s technical know-how.  Jason had also been very charismatic if reckless.  Tim had big shoes to fill and with Kid Flash passing, it was only natural for Tim to pay closer attention to the details and favor a more look-before-you-leap mentality.  Maybe Dick’s guidance and advice had something do with that.  Maybe it was Jason’s death hanging over the Robin name.

M’gann and Karen hadn’t missed Babs’s departure and watched Dick head for the door curiously so Dick felt justified in asking, “Does she often do that?”

“All the time.”  “Since she installed the vents.”  Their faces were identical mixtures of amusement and all-too-patient acceptance.

Then the comm kicked in again.   _\- “Is MM still with you?  If so she should come too.” -_

That gave Dick pause.  Tim seemed at ease (relatively speaking), but what would he want him and M’gann for that he wanted to keep under wraps from everyone else in the base?  Dick turned back and, catching M’gann’s eyes, twitched his head towards the door.  The mental questions began immediately as she followed and Dick resigned himself as even Karen abandoned the command center to curiously follow.  They were about to head into the zeta tube room when M’gann shot down the hall.  “Hey Connor!”

Dick and Karen watched the Martian sweep up her boyfriend in an affectionate hug, still eager to make sincere amends after the last three years of estrangement.  Kaldur stepped around the couple blocking the hallway smoothly, his face a touch urgent as he made straight for Dick and the doorway.

“What’s going on?” Dick demanded of Tim who was bringing up the rear with Mal and a curious Kilowog.  Karen went straight to Mal’s side, a chaste kiss for him on his cheek.

Kaldur’s eyes were unusually bright as he regarded Nightwing.  “Troia is here,” he succinctly said pressing the switch.

Tim was interested in the reproaching tone of voice Kaldur used.  Caught completely off-guard, Dick flinched and took a step back in shock.  Everyone else seemed in a rush to see Troia but Tim had picked up on it. For a protege of Batman to react in that way, Kaldur might have as well have just stabbed one of them in the back (for real) to rattle Dick that badly.  Troia was still a topic Dick hated to bring up himself with the others.  With a shrug, Tim slipped forth to follow Kaldur into the room.

Three people Tim hadn’t seen in a long time were present, two standing on the ground as they watched the third in the air.  Carr had apparently suspended class as he watched Garfield talking nearly as fast as Bart usually did to the visitors.  With him stood Jaime, seeming a bit wary to take off the armor around the newcomers.  Bart looked content to just lean on Jaime.  He rested his chin on Jaime’s shoulder as he muttered into the other boy’s ear.  Cassie was more of a mind with Garfield rather than either Jaime’s cautious sentiment or Bart’s boredom - she was spinning in the air with a striking woman and a delighted whoop.  Babs was already there too, grinning as she watched Cassie go at it.

“Donna!” M’gann cried, excited and feeling two years younger again as she joined the veritable tornado of affection above the ground.  The Martian joining the mix slowed it down enough for Tim to very clearly recognize Troia - Donna Troy - who Cassie had inherited her position if not the title from.  Donna had her hair parted in the middle just like Wonder Woman, but was minus the tiara.  Instead, a silver choker gleamed on her neck, the same silver that highlighted her bustier and the reflective metal that composed not only her own durable gauntlets, but also her shinguards.  Her bustier itself was a dusty black with muted red highlights on her ribs.  Stars the same dusty red adorned her bracelets and the single pauldron the one-time Team member wore on her right shoulder.

The other one - warped nearly beyond recognition - numbered among the surviving trophies salvaged from Mount Justice and waiting for their new home in the Tower.  It was a souvenir of the three-day long mission where Donna had joined and nearly died saving the Team.  Tim hadn’t gotten much of a chance to work with her before she left the Team though, and there was bad blood between Dick with her.  Despite that, anyone who could make Cassie smile so much and be so happy to see his girlfriend themselves was fine in his book.

Karen and Mal were more curious about the other two who stood together. One was a girl with amazingly flowing hair that looked dangerously close to a bouffant straight out of a 60s drama.  The boy looked apiece with a hair that looked like regulation cut out of a military movie out of the 60s too.  Both looked a little younger than their own age - more along Gar and the younger members’ ages - and otherwise were fairly unremarkable.  The girl seemed a great deal more nervous than the boy, but he was also shifting from foot to foot.  Karen wanted to know why they seemed so nervous and what the hubbub was about.  They seemed familiar like she had seen them somewhere before, but she couldn’t place just where...

As the three woman in the air caught up excitedly, Bart zipped over to the others in the doorway.  “Heya gang.  The Zeta tubes said Lieutenant and Sergeant Marvel...but who are they?” He pointed to the other two strangers watching the spectacle above them.  “I thought Marvel had a brother, not a sister…”  Kaldur’s posture stiffened, but that was nothing compared to the way Mal, Karen, and even Connor goggled at the two in the middle.

“Bart...these are…” Kaldur began.

“Captain Marvel’s sister and their good friend,” Babs finished for him.  Adamantly, she marched over and firmly tugged Bart over.  “It’s rude to ask someone for introductions you can make yourself.  If you apologize nicely enough, maybe they’ll open up to you to explain themselves.”  Jaime thought he heard the message there loud and clear and moved to introduce himself too, but Babs’ narrowed eyes were trained on Dick past Kaldur as she said that.

Kaldur himself followed that look, but Dick seemed content staying out of sight and backing up so the door slid shut.  When Connor questioningly opened the door to bring him into the conversation, Dick was already gone.  Kaldur knew all too well that if Dick didn’t want to be found, he wouldn’t be found.  If something came up, he had ways of getting the erstwhile Team commander’s attention, so instead, he decided to lead the others by example and easily found a a smile past his surprise.  It wasn’t hard to, Kaldur was genuinely happy to see the Marvels.  He eagerly went over to ruffle Lieutenant Marvel’s hair affectionately and welcome the younger ones back.

“It’s been a long time Mary,” Kaldur said warmly with a nod to the gangly girl.  She grinned, shedding a bit of her fear at that and the rest easily as Karen dove to hug her. Mal clapped her on the shoulder with a wide smile.

“Hey…” the boy grumbled good naturedly, “don’t mess with the doo Aqualad.”

Kaldur’s smile slipped a bit.  “Please, call me Kaldur or Kaldur’ahm, Freddy.”  His voice strained a bit, trying not to make that sound like an order.

Freddy met his eyes evenly, a gleam of understanding in his eyes.  “Kaldur,” he acknowledged, apology in that quiet and calm statement.  Everyone here understood the power of names and Freddy Freeman and Mary Bromfield understood it better than most.  Smile restored, Kaldur clasped hands with Freddy firmly and asked about the last few years.

Connor walked up at a more sedate pace than Karen and Mal.  “I like the new look.”

“...You...haven’t changed,” Mary noted a bit puzzled as she looked him up and down. Mary’s absence was just before Connor noticed the limitations of his clone body’s biometrics.  

“Somethings never change,” Connor nodded a bit glumly.  But then he returned the appraising look, and to many’s surprise he smiled. “But change is good.”

“Change is good,” Mary agreed happily as he raised his hand and they high-fived.

~*~

Change, Dick decided, was the same as death.

Dramatics aside, Dick couldn’t help but reflect on the inevitable ripples that each death in his life cast as he retreated to his room - his parents, Jason, Tula, Ted Kord…Wally. As a child by Batman’s side, Dick had grown up well aware of death, well aware of the consequences, the senselessness, and the pain.  Batman always pushed him to make the most of it though.  From death, Bruce found a new appreciation for life, a purpose to guide him and set the golden rule for him - never to kill.

Dick....he learned from Batman, but in the end Dick Grayson was not Bruce Wayne, and Nightwing wasn’t Batman.  The deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne set Bruce on the path of the Bat and the hero still raised a toast to their fond memories on the anniversary of their deaths.  All the while he devoted every waking hour in the cowl and out to making Gotham the better place they had envisioned - the place they had hoped to build the night they had been murdered on the way home from a charity banquet.  The Graysons died at the hands of organized crime too, but their only dream had been raising a family and teaching their children and grandchildren to fly and feel the freedom of the open air.  Dick Grayson spent the anniversaries of their deaths on the street, wordless and focused on the task at hand as he fought crime.

Dick was born to the humble acrobats, but became the scion of the powerful Gotham philanthropists and their infamous son’s alter ego.  So where did that put him?  Dick had one foot in that world of wild passion and the other in the world of crime, justice, and lost innocence. So, his parent’s death had been the first change and now Dick was somewhere in between.  Between the fading memories of his parent’s vivid, loving lifestyle pushing against the Batman’s rigid code of heroics.

The door slid shut behind him and Dick leaned against the cool metal for a moment and considered taking a break.  He had been up and restless since dawn - or at the least since 6:00.  Debating it, he did at least pull off his gloves and stretched.  The mask stayed on.  Zatanna would say that he was turning into the Batman, but it just seemed more sensible to him.  As Robin Dick was like an unruly child who didn’t see the wisdom of their parent’s words.  As Nightwing, Dick not only saw the wisdom, but felt the worried frustration of the parent seeing their own mistakes mirrored again and again in their child making their way in the world.  Pragmatism.  Efficiency.  Battle-readiness.  Leading the Team was bringing that out of him.  Some of Batman’s creeds Nightwing picked up better than Robin with that understanding.

He hadn’t been expecting to run into Troia again today.  Donna had stayed off the radar during the entire Reach Campaign, and Dick simply didn’t have the resources keep tabs on her.  Donna had all the valor of Wonder Woman, but picked up the prudence and covert nature of the Bat Family during the short time she had with Jason.  If she wanted to disappear, she certainly knew how to do so.  No one had been able to figure out the nature of her and Jason’s relationship, but there was a fondness between the two of them.  Something more than comrades, so fresh and new to the Team together.  Dick thought back to the times when the Team would gossip behind the their backs, and something fond of Jason and Donna would wake in his chest and, miffed, tell the others off.  Wally had joked, but between Dick’s evident discomfort and Wally’s goofy quips moving the conversation away from the pair, the gossip eventually stopped.

Jason’s death pushed Dick further into the Nightwing persona and fractured the Team.   When he died, Donna left and the Marvels went with her.  That was the last time he saw Mark Bromfield and Francine Freeman.  Now Troia was back and Mark was Mary, Francine was Frank.  More changes, but good ones he supposed.  He probably should’ve said something to the Marvels at least.  It took him a while to own up to his insensitivity and ignorant words when they tried explaining why they were leaving.  For all his hacking and suaveness with the ladies, Dick still failed at being a decent human being more often than he liked.  But there had been Donna.  He didn’t hate Donna exactly, but he resented the freedom she was afforded.  He resented her time to mourn Jason and chance to live her life as she saw fit.  There was just too much for Nightwing to have the same freedom to drop everything and leave the Team when Jason died.  Not that he really wanted to.  His little brother’s death convinced Dick he had to protect the Team, and there was so much to learn to safeguard them against danger.  The fact that Jason had spent so much more time with Donna, that she had a better insight on the second Robin than his own “older brother,” also irked him at times.  He could admit that much at least.

Then Tim came to Batman and nearly brought Dick to his knees in shock seeing a new young shiny thing fresh out of civilian life in his dead littles brother’s spare uniform.  Tim kept Bruce from dwelling on Jason.  Dick found that Tim made it hard to think about anything but Jason.  In the end, it was Dick who helped Tim design his own suit, one that Dick’s past and Jason’s death couldn’t cast shadows on.  If only Tim hadn’t insisted on that gaudy red...

As he turned on his computer, Dick’s wrist CPU beeped and the chibi graphic of Kaldur’s face he designed flashed.   _“Do you need space?”_ the message read.  Dick closed the holographic message without replying and settled into his seat.  That could be answer enough.  If anything, Kaldur's question made him brood more.

Tula’s death had been the next change.  When she sacrificed her life, Kaldur passed the Team’s leadership onto Dick and disappeared.  Back then, the fledgeling pact against the Light he made with Dick while Dick tutored him in espionage was still fresh in both their minds.  Well...look where that ended up, Dick mused as he opened his research.  The Tower was state of the art and something the Team could claim as entirely their own.  But that couldn’t replace the lost odds and ends from Mt. Justice’s trophy room.  It wouldn’t bring back the memorabilia of Gar’s mother the changeling salvaged from the Logan Reservation.  It wasn’t the same place that saw the Team through life-threatening battles, through the loss of team members, or where the Team grew up and took their first steps together.  Tula’s death marked not only the beginning of the Light’s fall, but also the end of an era for the Team - and a home.  And even though Dick had grown up on such dramatic shifts, not all on the team were as well-adjusted as him.  Even so, Dick was still disturbed by the loss and recalled the argument with Wally the night Mt. Justice went up in flames.  He wondered once again what kind of life he making for himself.

Even now, Kaldur couldn’t quite let go of Tula’s specter...just the same way Jaime was haunted by someone he had never met.  While his research loaded and opened to fill the air around him, Dick reflected on a question Zatanna asked him once when grieving for her father.   _“If Batman hadn’t found you and avenged your parents Dick, what would have happened to you?”_   Dick had few illusions about how violent and short his life on the streets of Gotham would have been without the Bat.  And he most certainly wouldn’t have stayed in foster care.  Instead, the Batman mentored Dick and, from those lessons, Nightwing mentored not only Jason and Tim, but the entire Team.  

Dick’s emotional baggage was different from Jaime’s though.  Maybe Dick’s was heavier, but it didn’t rule out Jaime’s experiences.  Dick hoped he would never be in a situation where he had to weigh anyone suffering against his - pain was pain after all and his had already cost him so much with Donna.  Still, even now Jaime’s mental scars were keenly felt.  Ted Kord’s death saddled Jaime with a destiny that had taken his future and intruded on the boy’s agency in one of the most disturbing ways Dick could imagine.  How must it have felt - living as a prisoner of his own body for two months and free to see his friends and family, but unable to tell them the truth behind the lie before their very eyes?  

Bart’s friendship was a blessing - not only did he truly care, he could recognize the moments when the anguish touched Jaime’s eyes and help Jaime through it as only a speedster and their particular sense of humor can.  After all, he had a taste of the future Jaime had been so desperate to escape.  They fit well together Dick had realized.   One time Zatanna had shared that her studies had said that broken souls call to each other.  He decided that Jaime and Bart were like that.  The two of them shared the terrible promise of a cursed future, different perspectives that resonated with each other to bridge their pain and helped them find new life together.  He tried not to begrudge Jaime the comfort of having a speedster through his troubles.  Dick had his chance after all.

The speedster research loaded and Dick took in all the documents and papers, the data and analysis he and Batman gathered and the studies he was looking into.  Raising his hands, Dick gathered it all from where he “pinned” them on his workstation.  He swept them all into a folder and stuck that in the corner - just at the edge of sight far enough to not be a distraction, but not too far if something might be useful later on.  Instead Dick typed two words in the center and set his hopes on them: “SPEED FORCE.”

Dick knew that Wally’s death would not be the last one and could only hope it was the last one for some time.  But it was also a change and a different change at that.  If there was one change Dick would like Wally’s death to herald, it was that Wally’s death be no death at all.  Maybe change wasn’t so bad after all Dick mused.  It was a desperate hope, but one that could be tempered.  Dick always learned and adapted from death, he could learn and adapt from change too.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was trying to look for fictional DC scientic elements BESIDES kryptonian when I found this http://www.buymetalonline.co.uk/infographics/fictional-minerals.html - and was reminded of xenothium. Well oops. So much for being on top of my shit with Teen Titans.
> 
> Also I found out that according to Word of God on Young Justice, apparently there is no Speed Force in the YJ universe. Wat. I would say that’s what fanfic is for - including tweaking the circumstances of the Waynes’ death to give Grayson more cause for angst. :D
> 
> Don’t you love creative liberty? :3
> 
> A visual for the Troia design I relied on by the talented Bobkitty23 - http://www.deviantart.com/art/Troia-Titans-Design-398697546. Looks just like the real deal.
> 
> Also, Kilowog is a love note to the character's depiction in Kazyre's "Mainline." It is a must read read for Birdflash enthusiasts. http://archiveofourown.org/series/55841


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A routine visit to S.T.A.R. Lab Taos goes wrong. Since when does it ever go right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Young Justice, Teen Titans, Static Shock, and others works whose characters and stories are used and referenced in this fic are not my property. The convoluted plot is though. :3
> 
> *Guest Starring  
> Eduardo Dorado Sr. (mostly from S2E14 - "Runaways")  
> Adam Strange (mostly from S2E2 - "Earthlings")

_**S.T.A.R. Labs - Taos** _

_**August 10, 2015** _

_**14:16 MDT** _

Garfield could tell that returning to Taos S.T.A.R. Labs was a bittersweet moment for Virgil  - his harsh tone made that much evident if not his choice of words..  “Wow Dr. Dorado.  You did a good job.  Places looks like new...”

For Gar it was just another stop over to space and friends world away, but was getting closer together by the day.  “Hey Dr, Dorado!  How does this new tech work?” he bounced over to Dorado Sr. and gently ribbed him with an air of conspiratorial candor.  “I thought Sardath’s shield was foolproof.”  He adopted a more scholarly tone - at least seemed scholarly to him.  “What makes this new toy of yours tick?”  Unfortunately, it came off more mocking than anything.  The severe doctor raised a brow at the shapeshifter, but was no more mollified than Gar was chastised.

“Don’t mind him doctor.  He’s...enthusiastic...about your new biotech projects…”  Connor tried to assuage the doctor.  Gar shrugged at the look Connor sent him and sighed as Connor dipped his head to give a more pointed look.

Dorado Sr. shrugged off Connor’s attempt.  “Think nothing of it…Follow me please.”  He began leading them from the main door though a series of security checkpoints and deeper into the labs.  When Virgil pointed out the increased security, Dorado spoke up again.  “I will say the same thing I told the League and assure you that STAR wanted this facility back up and running as soon as possible.   They took...certain measures to prevent the earlier break in from happening again,” the doctor explained.

“Right…” Virgil deadpanned.  Gar suspected the other boy was thinking of the sorcery, technology, and political clout the Light still wielded.  Even Gar for all his thirteen years had a healthy respect for the Light’s capabilities drummed into him.  Somehow, the massive cutting edge blast doors and ID verification tech straight out of the spy movies in his childhood seemed pathetically lacking now.  He doubted that these mere doors and guards would be able to do much, no matter what the doors were made of or how trained these men were.  Boom tube tech was still a large mystery to the League never mind S.T.A.R. Labs.  He backed that up by mentally prodding Virgil.  The other boy had spent enough time with the doctor to know which signs of tension to look for - yup.  Dorado was flipping his security card up and down again.  Then Gar and Virgil caught Connor watching them and both tried to think of other things.  He was in on the link too, naturally he had caught on to what they were thinking of.

Dr. Dorado was running through the developments to the Zeta tech Strange had developed through a careful correspondence with Sardath, but Gar noticed Virgil seemed too distracted to follow the tech talk - which was weird.  Usually Virgil loved to talk science with him. _‘Static, you sure you’re ok with this?’_ Connor’s mind and, with it, some measure of the half-Kryptonian’s concern filled Virgil’s mind.

 _‘Just...peachy SuperB.  Peachy…’_  Virgil could feel Connor’s reproach and suspicious doubt press down on his mind against his own anger in answer.  Gar tried not to get too involved.  Virgil was pulling double duty between the Team and patrolling his home front in Dakota City and he couldn’t blame Virgil for wanting some space.

 _‘Connor...what about the demonstration?’_ Gar mentally whined.  He sounded petulant and he knew it, but doing it would take Virgil’s mind off his past here.  Gar was pretty sure of that.  Plus robotic limbs!  Scientists were always doing cool stuff modelling prosthetics after nature’s more inspired evolutions.  Gar’s interest in robotic animal-based limbs with the potential for laser weaponry like Arsenal’s was purely academic.  Yes.  Academic sounded good he decided.

 _‘Business first Gar,’_ M’gann’s mental voice chided gently.   _‘Victor already had Raquel tell us that he’d be waiting for us.’_

_‘Fiiiiiiiiiiiine’_

Dr, Dorado eventually led them down the sublevels of the complex to the massive Zeta tube that Red Volcano once destroyed.  The lab looked as if the android’s rampage had never happened.  That didn’t mean it was any neater though.

“You’re sure this’ll work?” Connor struggled to keep doubt out of his voice.  The modifications to the gate looked bulky and haphazardly with wires and cables spilling out everywhere.  These modifications were the same reason that they had to take the bioship to get here - the modifications necessitated taking the tube off the normal network.

“Fairly.  Our Zeta tubes aren’t near Ran’s level, but Sardath has been very forthcoming with the theory on the interplanetary aspect,”  Dorado flipped up a page on his clipboard and check the notes beneath.  “Although, it had a tendency to overload any other tubes on Earth when we test ran it two days ago.  The Japanese are still miffed about that.” Connor nodded his understanding and navigated the cluttered room to the zeta tube while Gar ran himself in excited circles to explore the lab.

 _‘Connor, if I’m babysitting, my rate is twenty bucks an hour.  No less.’_ Virgil drily complained.

 _‘Noted’_ Connor mentally fired back with a hint of amused mocking and the younger hero crossed his arms huffily.  Then Gar’s tail smacked Virgil in the face as the delighted changeling ran by.

~*~

“A real beauty isn’t she?”

Connor carefully stepped over another cable and nodded to Adam Strange as he sat back from the monitor he was sitting at.  “How’s Alanna?” he asked, a spot of fondness for the Rannian adding warmth to the terse question.

“Amazing as always and still getting up to no good in the jungles,” Adam looked to the monitor and patted it fondly.  “One day we’ll be able to reach up to Rann and open normal channels of diplomacy.”

“Rann still on lockdown?”

Adam nodded. “Rannian Science Command can’t hold back our tech at least.  With this upgrade, technically we’ll be able to get through Rann’s shield now that Sardath has “retired.”  He told me that the rest of the scientists aren’t as...innovative…as everyone says.  So it’s just a matter of closing the gap now.  Literally.”  Connor spared a moment of admiration for Adam - it couldn’t be easy for him.  All that was separating Adam from the love of his life on the other side of the galaxy was tech that her father knew well how to build and use.  At least Connor could see that M’gann was well when they broke up and still worked on the Team.  Adam and Alanna had fewer assurances.  Rannian Science Command would notice any missing tech since they had dismantled Sardath’s personal lab.  Suspicion would also fall hardest on his coincidental “retirement,” especially as leading developer of the shield tech to prevent such breaches.

Smugly, Adam also pointed out, “Not to mention the Science Command still hasn’t found a way to keep the shield from jamming communications without interfering with their Zeta protection.”  It was the perfect irony that the Science Command’s fear was being realized by the very policy they implemented to prevent it.  The Rannians’ xenophobia isolated them from the innovations of other races - innovations impossible if not for the cooperation of beings from different cultures with their own perspectives, knowledge, and creativity.  It was something Adam and Sardeth seemed to take proud glee in and another seed of hope for an intergalactic community.  Connor approved.

He clapped Adam on the shoulder.  “Tell Alanna hi for me.”

“She asks after you two you know.  Likes staying in the loop.  She says congrats for getting back together.”

Connor allowed Adam a fond smile before Dorado, Gar, and Virgil caught up with him.

“So tell me doctor,” Gar began with the same touch of lofty ignorance in his “don’t-I-sound-smart” tone from before, “how does the new zeta beam deconstruct and reconstruct our molecules to go farther than before?”

 _‘Nerd!’_ M’gann giggled fondly as Virgil face-palmed.

“Gar, you realize that Zeta beams don’t work like that?” Virgil wearily reprimanded. The boy was enthusiastic, but still more dazzled by the implications of science than appreciative of the theory.  Virgil didn’t think himself as much of a know-it-all, especially with Richie working his super smarts as Gear these days, but there were times when he would prefer less excitement and more fact checking from Gar.

Gar’s tail flicked back and forth.  “Huh?”

Virgil would’ve explained, but Dorado Sr. was already clearing his throat.  His tone took on a rehearsed note - it seemed this wasn’t be the first time he had to be telling this, nor did anyone believe it would it be the last.  “Zeta beams are not an instantaneous form of transport.  Broadly discussed theories on teleportation look to molecular deconstruction and reconstruction.  But Zeta beams are different.  Think of them as an accelerator - the person between the point of entry and exit of the beam is in a pocket existence of hyper-accelerated movement.  That’s why certain weather conditions and physical materials can stop zeta teleportation or make it a hazard - it’s not passing through materials so much as it is moving rapidly with little physical impact on the world.”

Gar’s face had broke out in wickedly eager grin.  “Sweeeeeet! Noted!” he cheered and then launched into a barrage of questions like the excited school kid he technically was.  Some of the questions made Virgil cringe slightly at how juvenile they were.   Even so he remained witness to his younger teammate’s curiosity and gleaned a few pearls of knowledge he never would’ve thought to ask about himself.

While Dorado and the others were engaged, Connor looked to Adam.  “Are we good to go?”

“Just waiting on the green light from Mars.” An icon on the screen began blinking.  “And there we go! Dr. Dorado!”

Within moments, the lab’s researchers and technicians were roused and, with the efficiency of practice, they were ready to go in short order.  “They’re so fast!” Gar breathlessly commented from their spot on the sidelines.  He was clearly impressed by the professionalism here.  “Science is so cool!”

Connor shrugged noncommittally and Gar’s attention was piqued enough he gently pressed his mind towards Connors.  He caught a glimpse of something from another lab Connor had visited where the scientists were...less committed and left genetic experiments to handle the grunt work.  Then the thought was gone and replaced by Connor’s disapproving glare.   _‘Gar...do we have to lecture you about manners again?’_

Gar shot him a cheesy grin that Connor didn’t buy for a minute.  He mentally readied himself to chide the changeling and was immediately distracted by Dorado waving them over to the main console.

“We aren’t sure of the effects of this variant of Zeta radiation yet and this arrangement emits a much higher concentration,” Dorado murmured as translucent walls slid into place between them and the abandoned area by the tube itself.  “None of the tests have shown anything harmful yet, but better safe than sorry.  Adam?”

“Ready Doc!” Adam flashed a thumbs up from a neighboring console.

“Begin the test!”

The device for the zeta beam wound up and for a moment Gar was struck by the fact that something was missing.  Then it hit him as the lab lit up with a flash.  No computer voice.  Maybe this tube wasn’t set up properly or connected to the network or something?  (Gar had promptly forgotten that the latter was exactly the case when M’ghann offered to let him fly the bio ship here)  That wouldn’t do - Koriand’r deserved better!  Gar already had the perfect code name in mind for her.

When the light faded, Gar was initially disappointed.  “Hey, where’s Kori?”

The protective walls were raised and Connor set out to pick up the orb-like object that sat in the zeta beam tube.  It was nearly as big as Connor and perfectly egg shaped - not so much difficult for Connor to lift as difficult to handle.  “This is the test run.  Don’t you remember the Martian Council promised us more bioships?” he called back towards Gar.

“Oh yeah!” Gar pepped up as he hopped over and looked over the dormant bio ship.  It was slightly larger than the civilian model J’ohnn had provided M’gann with and was a stark black in comparison with the other’s cheery red.

“We have new bio ships?” Virgil piped up in thoughtful surprise.

“The Martians needed time to reconfigure these,” Connor grunted as he carried the ship behind the barrier.  “Something about security protocols.  A thank you for help with Green Beetle and the Reach.”

 _‘Not to mention that the more sensitive controls had to be changed to respond to humans.’_ M’gann pointed out.

“Ok, give the Martians the all clear,” Connor said.  He thought he was careful as he set the ship down, but the thump as he set down the ship was louder than he expected.  He gave the orb a look-over, but found nothing amiss.  “Hmm, these ships are heavier than I thought.”

Gar hopped over.  “Cuz they're full of awesome guns and tech and stuff right?”

Connor rubbed his neck in thought.  “I guess.”

“I call dibs on this one!” Gar lept out and hugged the dormant bioship with all four of his dextrous limbs.  “I shall call him Shippy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Shippy!”  Gar rubbed his face into the pod and his tail whipped back and forth excitedly.

Connors eyes bulged at the idea.  “Not until you’re sixteen Gar!”  His heart raced as he remembered Gar whimsical approach to flying the bioship here.

“But Superbooooooy!”

M’gann’s mental laugher filled their minds and the scientists’ chuckles their ears.  Connor shrugged off Gar’s protests and went back to the others.  “Ok, I think we’re good,” he reported.

“And the Martians are ready too,” Strange reported.  The blast shields slid back into place and everyone turned to face the tube expectantly.

The Zeta tube lit up again and when the light receded, it revealed a striking and gorgeous young lady familiar to Gar and Connor.  Virgil gaped though, clearly floored at the sight of Koriand’r stepping out of the tunnel and into the light.  Her skin was a tan so bright it bordered near orange - clearly of off-world origin.  But her hair was a rich red and in contrast to both her skin and her downward cast eyes which were a brilliant peridot green.  Gar hadn’t seen M’gann’s mental image of Kori, but Connor compared the two and couldn’t help thinking that M’gann’s projection came up short to the real thing.  Her hair was like fire, but not brilliant and lively.  Instead its rich red oddly reminded Connor more of the kind of fire that... Klarion controlled.  They were the same steady scarlet and reminded him of the same promise of intense power that Koriand’r’s steady gaze invoked.  He knew the extent of the power firsthand.  Then she swept her bangs out of her eyes and she smiled at Connor.

“Friends!” Kori exclaimed as she ran forward and swept Gar and Connor into a hug.  “Oh! You have been missed!”

“Aw...the whole family’s back together! _Big cruddy deal!_ ”

An explosion knocked everyone to their feet and made the lights flicker.  In response, an alarm began to sound somewhere, but at the moment everyone’s attention went to the bioship.  The sound of static accompanied a flickering distortion in the air.  It cleared to reveal a small, but muscular, bald boy in a green jumpsuit.  He was standing atop the dormant ship with a smug grin and in one hand, he released the trigger on a remote detonator - what else could it be with the explosions elsewhere in the facility?  However, it was the other hand that caught everyone’s eyes - the hand holding a gun the boy trained above them all.  The pulse of bright yellow energy he fired struck M’gann.   With a grunt of surprise and pain, she lost control of her camouflage and fell only for Connor to catch her.

“Oh!  Not you again!” Static growled.  Though dazed, Miss Martian was still conscious and her telepathic link was going strong. _‘It’s Gizmo, the brat with souped up toys behind the trouble in Dakota!’_ Lightning flared as Static balled his fists and growled past a curled lip of disdain for their foe.

Superboy scowled angrily. _‘And he took out Miss Martian before we could react.’_ She was supposed to be their insurance against this kind of event.  Nightwing wanted to make Koriand’r’s arrival on Earth to be as anonymous as possible so Connor had been dispatched with only Gar and Virgil.  One senior member to two juniors in order to give the impression of a routine security detail for League-worthy causes - in this case new Zeta tech.  M’gann was supposed to be their check for larger contingencies - she had preemptively cloaked before they disembarked from the bioship and hung out of sight, phasing through the security behind them and watching their backs.  Somehow this Gizmo caught on and Superboy instantly regretted those looks and knowing glances the three boys had shared on the way here.  Gizmo hadn’t been on the League or Team’s radar until Virgil had several eventful run-ins with the technologically gifted spy in Dakota City.  Everything about this boy sounded dangerous and Connor could see why.  Had those looks alone tipped this brat off?  Beast Boy seemed to have thought of the same thing, but wasted no time into morphing into a gorilla and leaping at the diminutive spy.

Gizmo didn’t seem at all bothered by the massive 200 pound gorilla headed his way. He merely raised his gun and fired again - this time shooting a glowing laser net that knocked Beast Boy into the far wall and trussed him up easily.  At least the shock of seeing one of the heroes getting tied to the wall like a Thanksgiving turkey set the scientists into a swarm of panic out of the lab.  “Beast Boy!” Koriand’r immediately ran after Beast Boy, concern for her young friend spurring her on.

Over the panicked screams and shrieking alarm, Gizmo cackled.  “I’ll just be taking this then…” An array of cables snaked out from behind Gizmo to plunge into the dormant alien ship.  To the heros’ shock, the egg shape squirmed and an array of yellow electronic patterns spread outwards across the black surface like cracks in glass.

Static didn’t even wait for Superboys’s command to attack, he was already letting loose with a bolt of electricity.  Again, Gizmo didn’t budge as his tech hacked the bioship.  Instead, Gizmo flicked his gun hand downward and a probe telescoped out from his wrist.  “I was hoping I’d see you again sparkplug. I made this for you,” Gizmo taunted.  Virgil’s bolt arced towards the probe’s rounded end instead of Gizmo himself and drained into the metal rod.

“Wha -?” Virgil lowered his hands staring in curious caution.

Gizmo shrugged.  “So you’re smart enough to not do the same dumb thing twice.  Too bad plughead, I’ve got enough juice now.” Gizmo leveled the gun back on Koriand’r who had extricated a frazzled looking Beast Boy from the net.  She took notice and charged headlong at Gizmo - making a beeline straight at him and yelling a battle cry at the top of her lungs.  She seemed indifferent to the fact that the yellow panels along the gun glowed much brighter now.  “N00b,” Gizmo snorted and pressed the trigger.  Virgil’s bolt, only twice as large, flared out and slammed into Kori, setting her hair on end.  To the surprise of those present, she grit her teeth though and continued running straight at Gizmo, seemingly unfazed by the way she still smoked from the intense shock.

Kori was relentless, but the shock was clearly affecting her muscles if not her spirit.  She leapt at their foe but her punch was stiff and off mark as Gizmo blocked as he delivered one of his own.  That winded Kori and then, executing a spinning drop kick, Gizmo sent her into a haphazard stack of machines to his right.  The pile collapsed on the brave Tamaranian taking her out of the fight for the moment.

Connor was trying to take advantage of the villain's distraction to help M’gann recover on the other side of an an abandoned workstation.  She was numb all the way through, but grit her teeth and forced her limbs to move through her telekinesis - refusing to be taken out of the fight and shrugging off Connor’s concern.  Unoccupied as he was, Virgil was already closing in on Gizmo.  “Yo pinball, what did you think that’d do?  I can take the hit and send it right back at ya for sure!”  He fired another bolt as if to prove the point.

Gizmo only smirked knowingly and activated his lightning rod again.  “Amp the charge up and -” The newly recharged gun fired Virgil’s bolt of electricity back towards the junior hero only to knock him back past Connor and M’gann.  The blast had enough juice so that Virgil was steadily pushed back and painfully flipped head-over-heels over the workstation that had just been sheltering them.  “Ha!  Sure you can take a hit, but all I have to do is hit harder dunceplug!  All transformers blow up at some point!”  Gizmo turned his gun on Connor and M’gann as they readied themselves to dodge.

“And then there were tw- _oof_ ” Kori burst out of the pile of boxes and socked him in the jaw with a roar of triumph.  As Gizmo fell, a computerized voice rang out from the techpack on his back and the cables on the bio-ship pod came loose. _“Hardware acquisition failed.”_ The yellow patterns flickered off.

M’gann finally had enough feeling in her hands to grip and help Virgil to his own feet.  “Martian tech is nigh impossible for Earth tech to hack,” she smugly informed the electropath.  Virgil grinned back at her only to flinch and clutch his head with a low moan.

Superboy shot her a grin, but turned and scowled as Gizmo was hoisted above them into the air on the end of six robotic appendages.  “Chew on this crudmunchers!” he snapped and threw a small rectangular device at the ship.  “Fatherbox, go!”

M’gann tried to telepathically  rip the box off, but it was already too late as the Fatherbox sank into the dormant bioship.  “NO!”

The ship squirmed uncomfortably and then rose, smashing the walls around the lab as it unfurled.  It was generally the same shape as M’gann’s ship, but bulkier in the back which apparently could carry more.  The only other design change besides the sheer black body was the third prong.   _That_ arced out from the main body in the back over the gap between the two wing prongs from which M’gann’s bio-ship could fire from.

Over everyone’s surprise and the ominous rumbling from the ceiling, Gizmo issued his command.  “Get the orange girl and get us out of here!”

A tendril obliged Gizmo and wrapped around Kori before she could do more than growl in the villain's direction.  “Meep!” she squeaked as she was forcibly yanked into the bio-ship’s hold.  Gizmo’s robot limbs swung him from his perch and retracted as the ship opened and closed for his passage.  With a roar and the crunch of concrete, the ship forced it’s way through the ceiling and up through the lower levels of the lab into the sky.

“Kori!” Gar yelled at the hole, starting to run after the ship as if he was of a mind to shapeshift and pursue.

“Gar!” M’gann cried in turn.  She threw out a hand and a massive piece of the ceiling stopped short of nailing the back of her adopted brother’s head.

“It’s coming down!” Connor bellowed, plucking Gar by the collar and pulling him over to the others.  “Static - a shield!”

“Super-B, that won’t work!  I can’t protect us from fifty _tons_ of lab junk and even if I did, how would we get out?”

 ** _“Guys!”_** Heads snapped towards Adam who was running towards them with a peculiar looking apparatus on his head and draped over his upper body.  M’gann abruptly yanked him towards them as Virgil magnetized a growing load of rocks from burying them.  

“This is an experimental portable zeta-beam device,” Adam gasped out.  He fiddled with the screen on the box-like device on his chest.  “Wide-spread zone field, and - “

“SuperB! I can’t - hold out - much -more!” Virgil strained, the growing cluster of rubble and metal sank closer towards their heads.

“There!  Get close kids!” Adam instructed.  A moment later, the rubble came down with a crash.

~*~

Outside Taos S.T.A.R. Labs’s aboveground entrance, a perfect sphere of lab flooring and mid-air debris warped into existence.  The metahumans, aliens, and Strange fell to their knees as a smattering of the rubble Virgil had suspended over them rained down.

“OW” The electropath complained as a decent sized chunk bounced off his head.

“You ok?” Connor asked M’gann as she nodded in reply.

Strange fidgeted his portable zeta-device as it smoked and sparked at him.  “Dorado’s going to kill me,” he mourned as he tapped several unresponsive buttons experimentally.

Gar was having none of this.  “Guy’s KORI!” Gar urgently reminded them as he lept to his feet and, morphing into a peregrine falcon, took to the air.

As he watched Gar fly off with the others , Connor tapped his comm which he was was relieved to find still working.  “Tower, this is Superboy.  We have an emergency situation - Code 6 - requesting back up.  A Martian bio-ship has been stolen and is heading,” Connor activated his infrared vision and quickly checked the sun’s position. “North by northwest.  A friendly has been kidnapped and is on board I repeat - ”

Connor repeated this as M’gann and Virgil took off after Gar.  After a short conference with Kaldur, they decided to send a small contingency to Chicago to intercept the rogue ship.  That was when M’gann reached out to Connor.

 _‘Superboy,’_ M’gann interjected.

_‘- is something wrong?’_

_‘Kori and Beast Boy’s minds, they’re getting closer - they’re coming back.’_

Connor’s hand slowly lowered.  “What?”

 _\- “Superboy?  What is the matter?” -_ Kaldur’s voice sounded in his ear.  The sun was still bright, but all Connor had to do was focus… With his sharpened vision, he strained to make out a large green eagle straining to carry a spot of purple with scarlet hair towards back towards M’gann and Virgil.

“Cancel that rescue op Kaldur...looks like our friend has things under control.”

 ~*~

“Kori!”

“Friend M’gann!”

“Are you alright?  Are you hurt anywhere?”

Gar flopped on the ground while Virgil and Superboy watched Koriand’r give him a hug and then embrace the other girl.  All the while, M’gann fussed over the Tamaranian like she was her younger sister, which wasn’t too far from the truth for them he supposed.  The smaller green boy listened to M’gann fret over Kori and thought about how M’gann’s little adopted family on Earth just kept growing.  Hmm… He pointed to himself and then to Starfire, catching Connor’s attention.  At last he pointed at the curious Superboy.  “Does that make you the dad?” he mumbled, too weary to realize he said the thought aloud.

Connor blanched as Virgil burst out laughing at the bizarre non-sequitur.  The half-Kryptonian flapped a hand at Virgil which failed to silence the other boy and then scowled at Gar.  “Watch what you say Gar!”

“What?” Gar asked rather cluelessly.

Connor wasn’t sure what to say to keep Gar from ever repeating that again, all he could think about was Artemis when Gar asked that.  “How did you get free?” he asked of Koriand’r instead as she alit nearby.

She blinked.  “I...escaped...,” she answered simply.

“You just...escaped...” Connor crossed his arms skeptically.  Gizmo was a new face among the Light’s associates, but just this one encounter had instilled Connor with a surprising respect of the mouthy spy’s capabilities.

Kori shrugged.  “The one called the Gizmo began to argue with one named the “Firefly.” In their fighting, I freed myself and...gained the upper hand...I opened the wall and jumped.  Beast Boy saved me,” she added the last bit with a fond look for the chipper changeling as he grinned.

Connor and M’gann shared a look of awed appreciation.  Connor made a point to commit the name “Firefly” to memory - Kaldur and Dick would want those details later.  But there was more to the look than discovery - Martian bio-ships were tough and that one had been military-grade for a reason - how exactly did Kori break through?  He would ask more, but M’gann was still shooting the other girl concerned looks and Connor decided to leave it be.  Not for the first time since Kori knocked him around in the Martian base, Connor wondered just what their new friend was capable of - never mind the fact that she lept out a bioship traveling at max speed hundreds of feet above the ground.  Not that he had any doubts that she would’ve survived such a fall anyways.  Mars taught him a healthy respect of what Kori could handle.  He had yet to find what she couldn’t.

“Oh!” M’gann remembered.  “We haven’t properly introduced you yet.”  She waved Virgil forward.  “So, Static, this is Koriand’r, Princess of Tamaran,”  Kori bowed deeply to a very startled Virgil.  “Koriand’r, this is Static, the one I told you about.”

That made to make the Tamaranain perk up.  “You?  You are one who has suffered at the hands of the foul aliens known as the Reach?”

Virgil’s shy silence gave way to deflated turmoil as those words dredged up the memories of endless testing again.  “Yeah...that was me.”.

Kori bowed again, deeper this time with the hands clasped before her.  “I apologize that you too understand what it means to suffer from the hands of invaders.”

Virgil’s brows went up at the princess’s sign of respect.  Then he finished processing what she said and they went higher.  “Say what?”

“We’ll explain later,” M’gann gently cut in and urged Kori up from her bowing.

Suddenly Adam raised his hand and waved for their attention.  Up until then, he had been in conference with Dorado Sr.  The good doctor’s coat was burnt and torn, and a cut on his cheek was scabbing, but he was generally in one piece.

“Uh you guys?...There’s something I think you guys should know…”

**_Somewhere in the Persian Gulf_ **

**_August 11, 2015_ **

**_02:57 AS_ **

“It’s your fault you grub-munching, nose-picking pit-sniffer!”

“Oh stuff it down your “G”-rated throat Gizmo.  I got my job done.”

Gizmo crossed his arms and scowled at his partner.  Firefly hefted his loot - a container marked “Biotech Project #17” - experimentally.   Somehow, the black suited kid was able to manage it despite the awkward weight of his high speed jetpack on his back.  “Wonder what Blood’s gonna do to you?  That’s two failures in a row.”  His voice was distorted through the red-eyed yellow helmet, but Gizmo was used to that.  He wasn’t used to how Firefly’s smug tone was getting to him for once.

“She wouldn’t have escaped if you hadn’t been so buttsore you ten-cent thief!”

“Again,” Firefly set down the box and put a hand his chest just above the yellow emblazoning his stomach.  “ _I_ did what Blood wanted.   _I_ wasn’t the one that set off the bombs early like the simpering drama queen you are.  I even took out Rocket’s boytoy like he asked.  Bonus for me,” he jabbed his thumb at himself.  Then he pointed to the fuming technician, “You gonna crash and burn Gizmo.  I fail to see what could go wrong for me.”

Gizmo opened his mouth to retort and clamped it shut as a ruby shimmer in the back of the ship caught their attention.

“Students…, you’re home early.  The bell hasn’t even rung yet.”

“Headmaster,” the two immediately bowed at once, all arguments forgotten as the robed figure approached.  

“Imagine,” he began without fanfare, “my surprise to hear of a Martian bioship approaching, because of course -” the gaunt man casually wandered behind Gizmo and lightly ran tapped his finger along Gizmo’s hunched shoulders.  The young spy broke out in goosebumps at that touch.  Brother Blood never touched his students without very concerning interest.  “- with this shape and such mental presence, what else could it be?” Blood ran his fingers back and forth.  “So imagine my surprise when I reach out and find my students have made Daddy proud and brought home a bright shiny new gift!”

Blood went and clasped Firefly’s shoulders next, leaning in on the bowed youth who went rigid and breathless.  “Martian bio-tech.” he enunciated with care into Firefly’s ear.  “A brilliant acquisition that will further our Mistress’s cause greatly.”  With a grip like iron he squeezed Firefly’s shoulders until the boy squirmed uneasily.  Then the pressure was gone and Blood’s robe trailed past Firefly’s view of the floor.  “Imagine, the possibilities!” Blood went to Firefly’s stolen crate, stroking his chin.  “And what’s this?  The most cutting edge in battle-applicable robotic prosthetics?  Why, you could make an instant army with any odd person off the street with this!”  Blood’s hand flashed out and seized Firefly’s chin.  Yanking upward, Blood leaned in close, the cheery smile on his face not reaching his eyes as he shook Firefly’s masked face back and forth like a patronizing aunt.  “I just knew I could count on you Firefly.”  When he let go, the boy’s knees nearly went out from under him.  Such relief.

“Martian bio-tech, cutting edge prosthetics...hm?  I appear to be missing something, aren’t I?  Remind me Gizmo, what was your mission?”

Gizmo opened his mouth only to found he couldn’t speak.  He swallowed and tried again.  “To-to bring back...the Tamaranian girl.”

Blood’s back was to his pupils as he snapped his fingers in recollection.  “Why, that’s right!  The mission was to capture the Tamaranian girl and give her to the Light.” Blood inclined his head from one corner of the ship to another.  “But where _is_ the Tamaranian? Could it be, that you _lost_ the Tamaranian?”  He turned and glanced down to Gizmo.  “Hmm?  Gizmo?”

“...she...escaped Headmaster sir,” Gizmo confessed.  Lying or offering excuses would just make things worse.  He knew that much.

“Ah she escaped.  Not because she had help, did she - _Firefly?_ ”

Firefly went rigid again as Blood ghosted by.  “Headmaster, I…” his throat bobbed.  “I admit I lost my temper and didn’t think about the opening it provide the Tamarainian.”

“But you did kill Victor Stone?” Blood suddenly questioned as he leaned close to Firefly.

“Yes. Headmaster sir.”

“Excellent!”  Firefly began to breathe again and Blood paced around him.  “So you accomplished both tasks I set forth.”  He slowed and steepled his fingers in thought.  “Now the League and their little band of do-gooders should understand just what’s at stake here.  The Light does not appreciate the meddling and no one.   ** _No one_ ** \- is safe.” Then Blood leaned in and Firefly froze.  “But Firefly, my young friend.  You cost Gizmo the most important part of the mission.  The end goal of my sending you to Taos in the first place.”  Blood stopped directly in front of the thief.  “What should that cost you Firefly?”

“Please Headmaster,” the synthesized voice did nothing to mask the desperate gasps of air from the young thief.

The elder man tsked.  “Weren’t you listening Firefly?  I just said - _**no one is safe.**_ ”

Blood grabbed Firefly’s chin again.  “So.  A toe? A finger?”   He jerked the thief’s head upwards.  “An eye?” Blood purred as he traced one of the helmet’s red lenses.  Abruptly, one hand wrenched the locking mechanism at the base of Firefly’s neck and Blood tore the helmet off.  Firefly whimpered as Blood tossed it aside and carded his shock of blond hair with a mocking gesture of affection.  One of Blood’s fingers ran in an almost lovingly, tender circle around his left eye as the quivering orb .  “What do you think Gizmo?  What do you think Firefly has cost you tonight?”

Gizmo felt sick.  He hated Firefly, but Blood was hard to read.  He didn’t want to be in Firefly’s shoes, and he knew how quickly they might switch spots.  A pang of pity made him squeak, “A...toe…?”

“Hmm….you’re in a forgiving mood today Gizmo…such thoughtfulness towards your peers...as father to our little family I am touched by the sentiment.”  Blood let go of Firefly’s hair and the boy collapsed on the floor.

“After all…” Blood’s mouth quirked upwards in a smile.  “Your own failures recently warrants nothing less than an eye.”  Firefly huddled frozen on the floor as Blood seized Gizmo by the neck and roughly lifted the boy.  “Yes?  Tell me Gizmo...a toe?  A finger?  Or an eye?”

Gizmo’s struggling fingers went slack and fell from Blood’s arms.  His eyes glowed the same red as Blood’s.  “An eye, Headmaster.”

Blood’s smile widened. “I just knew you’d agree...”

**_Sacred Cross Hospital - Taos_ **

**_August 10, 2015_ **

**_17:16 MDT_ **

“No….” Gar whimpered morosely as he plastered himself against the window.  M’gann and Virgil joined him, but Kori kept a cautious distance unsure of where she belonged and hesitant to go near the clearly brooding Connor.  She respected his power and the limits to his frustration after working on Mars with him.  Nobody went close to Raquel as she braced herself against the window, a study in tension, as she watched on in.

On the other side of the glass doctors were hurrying to save the life of noted robotics genius Victor Stone.  Present among the doctors was his mother - one Elinore Stone who relayed instructions and was preparing several of the very prosthetics she worked on with her son in the hope that they would save his life.

To Connor, Elinore Stone seemed terrified as her voice shook calling out instructions Connor couldn’t help but overhear.  He himself refused to look in on a procedure that reminded him far too much of Cadmus’s machinations.  Trying not to think of the surgery, Connor tried meditating as Dinah and M’gann were teaching him, doing his best to tune the chaos out.  To M’gann, who could not actually hear the doctor, Elinore Stone was unweilding and unshakeable.  Her thoughts were a bit hectic and tinged with fear when they occasionally went to her husband who was also in treatment, but was not in nearly a critical state as her son.  But M’gann saw her hands were steady as the resolve in her mind as Elinore set about saving her son.

“Hey, sis,” Gar tugged on Kori’s sleeve.  His voice grew smaller if that was at all possible.  “Victor’s going to be alright, right?”  Victor was busy with his research and raising Amistad with Raquel, but he tried put in face time with the Team whenever he could.  He always said the Team was more relatable to him than the League and the kids loved his cooking.  Furthermore, he was always careful to make vegetarian options for Gar and often teased and joked with Gar like an older brother which won him a special place in both Gar and M’gann’s hearts.

M’gann was at a lost as she faced her thirteen year old brother’s teared up face.  Gar was too young for this kind of repeated loss. “Of course he will,” she said folding him into a hug, “his mother’s right - ”  M’gann felt Gar’s body stiffen and the change as he reverted to Garfield Logan again.  She mentally kicked herself as she pulled him closer.  “A mother’s love is absolute,” whispered into Gar’s ear as he quietly buried his face in her chest.

As she tried to offer what comfort she could, M’gann’s mind wandered to a discussion she had overheard with Dick, Kaldur, and Virgil a while back.  This HIVE behind the recent attack was under the command of someone named Blood, but the choice of name was too close to Queen Bee to be coincidence.  A pang of fury M’gann hadn’t felt since the misunderstanding with Kaldur ached with a vengeance as she nursed Gar and her own sense of injustice.  Marie Logan, Rumann Harjavti and the thralling of his brother Sumaan, and the countless Quracians suffering Queen Bee’s reign… And M’gann could never forget the hundreds of nameless children who disappeared as Queen Bee turned them over to the Reach for experimentation.

M’gann had a feeling that Queen Bee wasn’t going to be pulling punches now that Luthor was there to cover her, and that suited M’gann just fine now.  When Queen Bee had held her identity ransom, M’gann had been resentful and the score had been personal.  Now, the score between M’gann and Queen Bee went beyond them to include the innocents hurt by her zealous quest for power.  Queen Bee was past due with interest M’gann had every intention to collect.

~*~  
  
Kori looked to M’gann and Beast Boy, feeling a bit lost as the younger boy seemed to revert to a boy more human than beast.  Kori had never seen that before and suddenly felt a lot more tongue-tied and antsy seeing the more human side of her young friend.  Static looked as lost in grief as any of the others and, despite her best efforts to sympathize with what M’gann shared with her on the black boy, Static still fit her idea of “human” enough to unsettle her.  There would be no solace in talking to him here.  Instead, she backed away.

A hand clasped her shoulder.  Kon-el gave her an assessing look and nodded towards the exit.  They left the grim silence behind and Kon-el  led her back to the airship.  She stopped seeing where he was leading her.  Freshly ingrained apprehension battled with an almost nostalgically forlorn sense of trust towards the half-Kryptonian.  “Where are we going?”

Kon-el glanced back at her and finally stopped to face her.  “We should get the rest of the bioships out of the lab.  They need to be secured in case Gizmo or that “Firefly” and their friends come back.”

It sounded reasonable enough to Kori - especially after being on the wrong side of the bioship Gizmo took over.  The ride back from the hospital to the once-again ruined Taos S.T.A.R. Labs was short and silent.  As they set down Kori rose out of her seat gracefully and waited for Kon-el  to open a door for her.  Instead he laced his fingers and looked up to hold her gaze.

“I don’t like hospitals,” he began.  Kori was a bit nonplussed at that but nodded her understanding so Kon-el  went on.  “I used to hate the fact that I was only half-Kryptonian.  I was practically a slave when I was raised in Cadmus.  Sometimes seeing all those white coats and the quiet…”  He fell silent for a moment.

“It is...disturbing.  Yes?”

Kon-el  nodded.  “I also hate not having anything to do.  I may not fly or have laser vision, but I have super strength. I can survive bombs, buildings falling on me…”

“But…”

“...It’s...disturbing...being powerless isn’t it?” Kon-el  admitted.  “When you can’t really help anyone?”

Ah...Kori realised he thought she was upset by the scene in the hospital room - not at Beast Boy’s reversion.  Unfortunately for Kori, she realized that Kon-el’s words were even more truer than she anticipated.  Her mind went straight to how she leapt out of the ship and tried to fly once more.  On the planet they called Mars, she had tried time and time again to reclaim the sense of joy that lifted her above.  Kori had hoped that maybe the urgency of the situation would give her the strength to fly again instead of joy.  She was bitterly disappointed.

Rather than dwell on that, Kori’s thoughts went back to her fragmented memories of Tamaran.  She was terrified that she couldn’t feel them somehow slip away day by day.  If it left scars, at least she knew they existed once, but all Kori was left instead with the terrifying knowledge that she knew she **_should_** know more.  Her understanding of who “Koriand’r” should be more complete.  But all that she could remember was the haunted look in her peoples eyes before she left them and Tamaran far behind - a recollection she could not escape though she would very much would like to.  More sinister memories pressed in and she blinked them from thought.

“...yes it is…”

She hadn’t noticed Kon-el  getting up during her lapse of silence.  But he had and now he stood close by, not touching her, but evidently concerned for her.  “We’ll get them back for you Kori.  Savage will pay for what he’s done.”  She nodded acknowledgement, but didn’t look up from the floor as Kon-el  sighed and made them an exit.

~*~

They found the three other bioships, apparently untouched by the enemy, twenty minutes into digging around the lab’s rubble.  Kori brought the dormant pods up to the bioship as Connor helped the lab’s shell-shocked facility gather up the remnants of their work to ship them out to more secure locations.

“Thank you,” Dorado said when they finished loading his van last of all.  He surveyed the ruined labs one last time.  “I doubt S.T.A.R. will be coming back to Taos now.  Maybe it’s for the best.” Dorado dug around in his coat and pulled out and unfolded what looked to be a photocopy of a letter.  Connor looked at it curiously and was puzzled when Dorado shoved it into his hands.  “I’ll likely be going back to Argentina for a bit… But I’ll probably be seeing you soon.  This is for you.  Jr. says something is going on down there that might interest your Team.”

Connor accepted it and read through it as he followed Dorado to the front of the van.  Then his eyebrows creased and he read through the letter a second time.  “This sounds like something for the League.”

“No doubt,” Dorado sighed and buckled up.  “But I could get a hold of you kids first.  And it’s your friends at risk here.”

The younger man sighed, tucking the folded letter away in his pocket.  “We appreciate the heads-up,” he told Dorado before the older man nodded.

“One more thing.”  Dorado offered another folded missive.  “Strange is going with you.  The League’s request was that if anything happened here, he should continue our research with them.”  Connor accepted the official notice with a nod.  “I assume we’ll be seeing each other around then.”

“Probably,” Connor nodded and waved the doctor off.

Kori was waiting a respectable distance away.  “Friend Kon-el, the bioships are loaded,” she reported.  She seemed a bit...tense again.  Like she had been at the hospital.  “M’gann has asked what we are doing here.”  Her gaze went back to the ship.

Connor tried to figure out what she was looking at.  “We’ll be heading back now.  Hold on a sec,” Connor found Adam waiting by the ship and he mulled that over as he led Kori back to the eager scientist  “Kori, this is Adam.  Adam, Kori.  We’ll be taking Adam and his work back to the Watchtower for the time being.”  The Tamaranian frowned but bowed her head stiffly to Adam in acknowledgement.

Connor waved her off from carrying the meager remnants of the long range Zeta research into the ship.  “I’ll handle this.  You can talk to Adam - his girlfriend is Rannian.  Maybe they can look into what’s going on with Tamaran for you.”  He took the container from her hand and walked off as Kori internally battled with dismay.  Outwardly, she only appeared to hesitate and Connor wrote it off as shyness.

“But, but I -,” Kori spluttered.

Connor shot her an unusually fond smile.  “Adam’s a nice guy, trust me on this.  He and Alanna will help in any way they can.”  Then he vanished into the bioship’s hold.

Adam rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.  “Uh, hi.  Adam Strange - Zeta beam researcher and assistant to Dr. Dorado.”

Kori fell silent and stared stoically at him.

“...er, nice to meet...you?”

Her eyes went to his pale skin and his sideswept blonde hair.

“...uh.  Kori?”

She stiffened.  “My name is _Koriand’r_ ,” she said flatly with a cold, patrician air as she turned away and crossed her arms.

Adam stared blankly.  “Was it something I said?”

**  
**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Young Justice ER edition!
> 
> I didn't realize until just now how much time the Team is spending waiting in emergency rooms, but it seems oddly appropriate to me. Mooooooooooooore grieeeeeeef. Also, yeeesh Brother Blood. Cool yer jets. If you want to know more about Gizmo - read the Evocation companion fic focusing on Virgil~
> 
> I was trying to write this from Beast Boy's perspective, but, as you can see, it didn't take very well. Ah well, Kori needs love too. <3
> 
> One thing to note. I meant it when I tagged this with "Cast of thousands." I will be making references to more characters in the DC universes, but very few will be important outside of the context established in the Young Justice show and Teen Titans. Dorado Sr. and Strange are two such characters in this chapter. I will be adding short blurbs on unknown characters - but I'll do my best to avoid spoilers. The point isn't to overwhelm you, but to point out that the rest of the world outside America has its own heros, their own issues to work though and that there are some contexts where global issues require respecting global friends. At least as best as I can express using DC characters.


End file.
